LIBRARY 

.UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
DAVIS 


AMERICAN   CRISIS   BIOGRAPHIES 

Edited  by 

Ellis  Paxson  Oberholtzer,  Ph.  D. 


Hmerican  Crisie  Biographies 

Edited  by  Ellis  Paxson  Oberholtzer,  Ph.D.  With  the 
counsel  and  advice  of  Professor  John  B.  McMaster,  of 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

Each  i2mo,  cloth,  with  frontispiece  portrait.  Price 
$1.25  net;  by  mail,  $1.37. 

These  biographies  will  constitute  a  complete  and  comprehensive 
history  of  the  great  American  sectional  struggle  in  the  form  of  readable 
and  authoritative  biography.  The  editor  has  enlisted  the  co-operation 
of  many  competent  writers,  as  will  be  noted  from  the  list  given  below. 
An  interesting  feature  of  the  undertaking  is  that  the  series  is  to  be  im 
partial,  Southern  writers  having  been  assigned  to  Southern  subjects  and 
Northern  writers  to  Northern  subjects,  but  all  will  belong  to  the  younger 
generation  of  writers,  thus  assuring  freedom  from  any  suspicion  of  war 
time  prejudice.  The  Civil  War  will  not  be  treated  as  a  rebellion,  but  as 
the  great  event  in  the  history  of  our  nation,  which,  after  forty  years,  it 
is  now  clearly  recognized  to  have  been. 

Now  ready : 

Abraham  Lincoln.     By  ELLIS  PAXSON  OBERHOLTZER. 
Thomas  H.  Benton.     By  JOSEPH  M.  ROGERS. 
David  G.  Farragut.      By  JOHN  R.  SPEARS. 
William  T.  Sherman.      By  EDWARD  ROBINS. 
Frederick  Douglass.     By  BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON. 
Judah  P.  Benjamin.      By  PIERCE  BUTLER. 

In  preparation : 

John  C.  Calhoun.     By  GAILLARD  HUNT. 
Daniel  Webster.     By  PROF.  C.  H.  VAN  TYNE. 
Alexander  H.  Stephens.      BY  Louis  PENDLETON. 
John  Quincy  Adams.     By  BROOKS  ADAMS. 
John  Brown.     By  W.  E.  BURGHARDT  DUBOIS. 
William  Lloyd  Garrison.     By  LINDSAY  SWIFT. 
Charles  Sumner.     By  PROF.  FRANKLIN  S.  EDMONDS. 
William  H.  Seward.     By  EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE,  Jr. 
Jefferson  Davis.     By  PROF.  W.  E.  DODD. 
Robert  E.  Lee.     By  PHILIP  ALEXANDER  BRUCE. 
Stephen  A.  Douglas.     By  PROF.  ALLEN  JOHNSON. 
Thaddeus  Stevens.     By  PROF.  J.  A.  WOODBURN. 
Andrew  Johnson.     BY  WADDY  THOMPSON. 

To  be  followed  by : 

Henry  Clay  Edwin  M.  Stanton 

Ulysses  S.  Grant  "Stonewall"  Jackson 

Wade  Hampton  Jay  Cooke 


AMERICAN  CRISIS  BIOGRAPHIES 


JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 


by 
PIERCE  BUTLER 


PHILADELPHIA 
GEORGE  W.  JACOBS  &  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


LIBRARY 

.UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 


Copyright,  1906,  by 
GEORGE  W.  JACOBS  &  COMPANY 

Published,  May, 


To  the  late 

Ernest  Benjamin  Kruttscbnitt, 

through  whose  generous  and  ever 

kindly  help    it  was    made   possible, 

this     book     is     gratefully     dedicated. 


PREFACE 

AMERICAN  history,  certainly,  scarcely  contains  the 
record  of  a  personality  more  intrinsically  interesting 
than  that  of  Judah  P.  Benjamin,  the  Jewish  lawyer 
and  statesman  who,  after  conspicuous  success  at  the 
bar  in  this  country,  after  continuous  service  in  the 
leadership  of  the  Confederacy,  again  achieved  the  most 
honorable  triumphs  at  the  bar  of  England.  Were  his 
own  life  otherwise  quite  barren  of  interest — which  it  is 
not — the  mere  story  of  his  share  in  the  great  Civil  War, 
if  properly  told,  should  prove  a  fascinating  record. 
Therefore  it  is  that  the  present  writer  is  bold  enough 
to  hope  that  the  mere  interest  of  the  subject  and  the 
substance  of  this  narrative  may  help  to  atone  for  his 
own  errors  and  shortcomings. 

But  a  further  plea  for  the  indulgence  of  my  readers 
is  necessary.  The  extreme  difficulty  of  collecting  ade 
quate  and  reliable  materials  for  this  biography  can  be 
thoroughly  appreciated  only  by  those  who  may  at 
tempt,  as  I  hope  some  will,  to  do  better  than  I  have. 
Yet  the  general  reader  may  judge  of  the  obstacles  to 
be  overcome  in  this  respect  when  he  learns  that  it  was 
Mr.  Benj  amin's  rule  to  destroy  at  once  all  of  his  cor 
respondence — everything  that  might  aid  or  enlighten  a 
biographer.  Mr.  Francis  Lawley,  who  had  begun  the 
task  of  collecting  materials  for  a  biography  of  Mr. 
Benjamin,  thus  writes  down  what  the  latter  told  him 
on  April  27,  1883  :  "  Even  if  I  had  health,  and  desired 
ever  so  much  to  help  you  in  your  work,  I  have  no  ma- 


8  PEEFACE 

terials  available  for  the  purpose.  I  have  never  kept  a 
diary,  or  retained  a  copy  of  a  letter  written  by  me. 
No  letters  addressed  to  me  by  others  will  be  found 
among  my  papers  when  I  die.  With  perhaps  the  ex 
ception  of  Mrs.  Jefferson  Davis,  no  one  has  many  letters 
of  mine  ;  for  I  have  read  so  many  American  biog 
raphies  which  reflected  only  the  passions  and  preju 
dices  of  their  writers,  that  I  do  not  want  to  leave  be 
hind  me  letters  and  documents  to  be  used  in  such  a 
work  about  myself. "  Indeed,  Mr.  Benjamin  was  very 
reserved  concerning  his  private  affairs,  as  well  as 
matters  of  professional  or  official  business  within  his 
ken.  Just  as  he  had  devoted  his  last  day  in  Eich- 
mond  to  the  burning  of  the  secret  service  papers  of  the 
Confederacy,  so  he  was  busy  during  the  last  weeks  of 
his  life  in  destroying  such  private  papers  and  letters  as 
remained  ;  and  "  when  he  died,"  writes  Mr.  Witt,  one 
of  his  executors,  u  he  did  not  leave  behind  him  half  a 
dozen  pieces  of  paper."  '  Moreover,  his  nephew,  Mr. 
E.  B.  Kruttschnitt,  of  New  Orleans,  wrote  to  Mr.  Law- 
ley  :  "  I  do  not  know  what  material  you  have  at  hand 
to  aid  you  in  writing  Mr.  Benjamin's  biography,  but  I 
would  say  that  I  have  always  found  it  extremely  diffi 
cult  to  learn  anything  about  his  life  prior  to  the  Civil 
War  with  any  degree  of  accuracy.  The  older  mem 
bers  of  the  family  know  nothing  but  the  most  general 
facts,  and  have  never  been  able  to  give  me  details 
which  would  be  extremely  interesting  in  reference  to 
the  political  campaigns  in  which  Mr.  Benjamin  was 
engaged,  his  two  candidacies,  and  election  to  the  United 
States  Senate,  etc.  When  I  first  joined  the  bar  in  this 
city,  in  1874,  many  of  Mr.  Benjamin's  contemporaries 

1  Lawley  MS. ;  see  also  Callahan,  pp.  12,  20,  23. 


PEEFACE  9 

were  still  alive,  and  some  of  them  could  speak  most 
interestingly  about  his  earlier  career,  but  all  of  these 
persons  are  now  dead  [1897],  and  I  do  not  know  of 
any  one  who  from  personal  recollection  could  give  any 
matter  of  real  importance  to  a  biographer.  .  .  . 
The  task  of  preparing  such  a  work  is  one  which  I  at 
one  time  seriously  considered,  but  I  was  appalled  by 
the  amount  of  research  and  labor  which  would  be  nec 
essary,  in  order  to  obtain  the  information  required  to 
prepare  such  a  work.  My  aunt,  Mrs.  J.  P.  Benjamin, 
who  was  then  alive,  was  quite  desirous  that  I  should 
undertake  the  task  when  I  last  saw  her  on  a  visit  to 
Europe  in  1886.  Neither  she,  nor  Mr.  Benj  ainin's 
daughter,  had  any  papers,  however,  which  could  be  of 
the  slightest  assistance  to  me,  and  I  could  not  then  see 
where  I  could  get  the  material  for  more  than  a  short 
sketch." 

Confronted  by  a  situation  thus  discouraging,  I  nev 
ertheless  persevered  in  my  endeavor  to  find  sufficient 
material  to  give  form  to  this  work.  A  careful  investi 
gation  of  the  valuable  files  of  newspapers  preserved, 
or  rather  allowed  to  exist,  in  the  City  Hall  in  New  Or 
leans,  revealed  many  details  of  interest  about  Mr. 
Benjamin's  earlier  career  in  that  place.  I  made  an 
examination  of  these  newspapers  from  1830  to  1865, 
being  especially  careful  for  those  of  the  years  after 
1842  ;  and  for  this  labor  I  was  amply  rewarded  by  the 
mass  of  news  and  of  editorial  comments  upon  which 
some  of  the  earlier  chapters  of  the  present  book  are 
based. 

Through  the  generous  help  of  the  publishers  and  of 
Mr.  Kruttschnitt,  I  was  enabled  to  secure  the  mate 
rials,  still  quite  inchoate,  collected  by  Mr.  Lawley, 


10  PEEFACE 

which  gave  much  most  valuable  information  for  the 
treatment  of  Mr.  Benjamin's  career  in  England. 

Again  through  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Kruttschnitt  and 
of  other  members  of  his  family,  I  was  given  such  de 
tails  of  family  history  as  they  could  furnish.  And  at 
length  they  discovered  and  put  at  my  disposal  a  most 
interesting  collection  of  letters,  about  two  score,  dating 
from  1864  to  1883,  from  Mr.  Benjamin  to  various 
members  of  his  family,  the  only  considerable  number 
of  letters  I  have  been  able  to  find.  I  have  drawn 
largely  upon  these,  though  always,  I  trust,  with  due 
regard  for  the  manifest  wish  of  Mr.  Benjamin  to  leave 
unharmed  the  sanctity  of  family  relations. 

Mr.  Max  J.  Kohler,  of  New  York,  also  furnished  me 
with  a  copy  of  his  excellent  monograph  upon  Mr.  Ben 
jamin,  and  put  me  upon  the  track  of  several  other 
possible  sources  of  information.  The  most  fruitful  of 
these  proved  to  be  a  small  collection  of  letters  from 
Mr.  Benjamin  to  Messrs.  James  A.  and  Thomas  F. 
Bayard.  Mrs.  W.  S.  Hilles,  of  Wilmington,  Del., 
daughter  of  Hon.  Thomas  F.  Bayard,  deserves  especial 
thanks  for  her  care  in  copying  and  sending  to  me  these 
letters,  as  well  as  certain  notes  upon  Mr.  Benjamin 
made  by  her  father,  which,  though  few  in  number, 
contained  items  of  great  interest  and  importance. 

Finally,  the  record  of  Mr.  Benjamin's  public  acts  as 
an  official  of  the  Confederate  Government,  now  in  pos 
session  of  the  United  States  Government,  at  Washing 
ton,  is  sufficiently  full  to  enable  one  to  follow  this  part 
of  his  career  with  accuracy.  Some  of  this  material 
has  been  published '  or  is  in  course  of  publication  by 

1  The  Hon.  J.  D.  Richardson's  Compilation  of  Messages  and  Papers 
was  not  available  until  my  task  was  practically  completed. 


PEEFACE  .11 

authority  of  the  Federal  Government ;  much,  however, 
still  remains  in  manuscript  in  the  archives  of  the 
Treasury  Department,  to  whose  custodians  I  wish  to 
make  acknowledgment  for  their  courtesy  and  assistance 
in  the  examination  of  the  documents. 

Since  the  author  is,  by  ancient  and  precious  custom, 
permitted  to  introduce  himself  to  the  reader  in  his  own 
way  in  the  preface,  I  may  venture  upon  a  word  or  two 
of  explanation  in  regard  to  the  method  of  treatment 
and  the  point  of  view  that  I  have  sought  to  maintain 
in  the  following  pages.  First,  as  to  the  proportion  or 
amount  of  space  devoted  to  the  various  periods  of  Mr. 
Benjamin's  life,  I  may  say  that  I  have  tried  to  give 
due  preponderance  to  what  seemed  most  vital  and  in 
teresting.  For  example,  the  political  career  both  be 
fore  and  during  the  Civil  "War  has  received  fuller 
treatment  than  the  purely  legal  career.  The  signifi 
cant  characteristics  of  the  great  advocate,  and  the  im 
portant  cases  that  should  claim  popular  attention,  have 
been  presented ;  but  the  author  has  sought  to  avoid 
technicalities  of  the  law,  that  might  be  of  doubtful 
interest  to  a  limited  number  of  students  ;  for  Mr.  Ben 
jamin  was  something  more  than  a  lawyer,  and  we 
should  but  lose  sight  of  the  larger  activities  of  the  man 
in  attempting  to  make  a  professional  study.  It  has 
likewise  seemed  proper  to  treat  in  greater  detail  the 
whole  story  of  Mr.  Benjamin's  life  in  America ;  for, 
undoubtedly,  it  was  in  this  land  that  he  "  found  him 
self."  His  fame  was  made  before  he  went  to  England, 
and  his  successes  there  were  but  the  culmination,  and, 
indeed,  the  continuation,  of  those  here.  Though  he 
transferred  his  formal  allegiance  to  Great  Britain, 
whose  child  he  chanced  to  be,  he  could  no  more  for- 


12  PEEFACE 

get  America  than  he  could  make  the  English  forget 
what  they  called  his  "  American  accent." 

Secondly,  it  seems  proper  to  say  that  the  aim 
of  the  book  has  been  to  treat  quite  frankly  the  life  of 
one  who,  active  in  the  politics  of  a  very  stormy  period 
of  our  history,  did  not  escape  the  criticisms  and  calum 
nies  of  politics.  Every  charge  against  Mr.  Benjamin 
of  any  moment  whatever,  so  far  as  known,  has  been 
set  down  in  these  pages  5  where  justification  or  excul 
pation  seemed  proper,  it  has  been  attempted ;  but 
where  his  conduct  seemed  indefensible,  no  defense  has 
been  made, — merely  the  statement  of  such  facts  as 
could  be  established.  The  character  of  the  man,  I 
believe,  should  outweigh  petty  accusations ;  hence  I 
have  not  wilfully  neglected  to  notice  them  all  where  I 
found  them.  Finally,  in  discussing  the  delicate  polit 
ical  questions  of  the  period  from  1850  to  1865,  I  have 
sought  to  present  the  view,  as  I  conceived  it,  of  the 
South,  but  always  with  such  comment  as  the  fairer  and 
clearer  vision  of  our  own  time  appeared  to  call  for.  It 
seemed  futile  to  attempt  to  understand  the  Confederacy 
if  one  treated  it  in  hostile  or  unsympathetic  mood  ;  it 
seemed  equally  absurd  and  unworthy  of  history  to 
follow  blindly  the  political  teachings  of  apologists  for 
a  lost  cause.  The  most  difficult  matter,  perhaps,  has 
been  to  present  adequately  the  diplomatic  history  of 
the  Confederacy,  so  as  to  show,  if  possible,  that  be 
cause  she  failed  of  securing  that  foreign  recogni 
tion  which  was  the  stake  for  which  she  played  in 
diplomacy,  it  does  not  follow  as  a  necessary  conse 
quence  that  the  fault  was  in  the  diplomacy.  The  his 
toric  prestige  of  success,  of  course,  is  with  the  Union 
cause ;  but  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that,  though 


PREFACE  13 

victory  may  follow  the  biggest  battalions,  the  smaller 
may  have  been  ably  commanded. 

It  remains  for  me  to  express  my  thanks  for  assist 
ance  of  various  kinds  from  the  many  to  whom  I  have 
found  it  necessary  to  apply  in  the  course  of  this  work. 
The  names  of  all  I  cannot  give  here  ;  but  at  least  I 
should  not  fail  to  mention  Mrs.  E.  A.  Bradford,  of 
New  Orleans,  widow  of  Mr.  Benjamin's  law  partner 
and  intimate  friend ;  Mr.  Joseph  Lebowich,  of  Har 
vard  College,  author  of  a  useful  Bibliography  on  Mr. 
Benjamin,  who  has  been  most  kind  in  putting  at  my 
service  materials  and  references  collected  by  him ; 
Mrs.  Mary  Pohlman,  custodian  of  the  archives  in  the 
New  Orleans  City  Hall,  who  assisted  me  greatly  in  my 
search  through  the  newspapers  ;  Mr.  William  Beer,  of 
the  Howard  Library,  who  has  allowed  the  utmost  free 
dom  in  consulting  the  valuable  collections  there  upon 
the  history  of  Louisiana  ;  and  Mrs.  Jefferson  Davis, 
who  has  written  full  and  interesting  letters,  furnishing 
details  about  one  with  whom  she  was  so  intimately 
associated  during  Richmond's  ordeal  by  fire.  For  care 
in  the  reading  and  revision  of  the  proofs,  I  must  thank 
Professor  John  R.  Ficklen,  of  Tulane  University. 


CONTENTS 

CHRONOLOGY 17 

I.    BIRTH  AND  TRAINING     ....  21 

II.     LAW  AND  SUGAR 32 

III.  POLITICS  AND  CONSTITUTION  MAKING    .  64 

IV.  FROM  STATE  POLITICS  TO  THE  SENATE  .  96 
V.    COMMERCIAL  INTERESTS          .        .        .  113 

VI.    CHANGE  IN  POLITICAL  VIEWS         .        .  141 

VII.      IN  AND  OUT  OF  THE  SENATE    .            .            .  173 

VIII.     THE  PRESIDENTIAL  CAMPAIGN  OF  1860  .  191 

IX.     ATTORNEY-GENERAL  AND  SECRETARY  OF 

WAR 225 

X.    THE  CONFEDERATE  COMMISSIONERS        .  259 

XI.    DIPLOMATIC  EELATIONS  WITH  FRANCE 

AND  ENGLAND       ....  283 

XII.     DARK  DAYS  IN  EICHMOND      .        .        .  327 

XIII.  STARTING  LIFE  ANEW     ....  358 

XIV.  A  NEW  HOME  AND  NEW  FAME       .        .  384 
XV.    CHARACTER  AND  ACHIEVEMENT     .        .  418 

APPENDIX 441 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 442 

INDEX  451 


CHRONOLOGY 


1808— Philip  Benjamin  and  Rebecca  de  Mendes,  married  shortly 
before  in  London,  emigrate  to  St.  Thomas. 

1811— Judah  Philip  Benjamin  born  in  St.  Thomas,  August  6th. 

1816-1818— The  Benjamins  remove  to  the  United  States,  settling 
first  at  Charleston. 

1825 — Benjamin  enters  Yale  College,  but  leaves  in  1827,  without 
taking  a  degree. 

1828— Comes  to  New  Orleans,  earning  his  living  by  teaching,  and 
studies  law  as  a  notary's  clerk. 

1832 — Called  to  the  bar,  December  16th,  and  three  mouths  later  is 
married  to  Natalie  St.  Martin. 

1834— Benjamin  and  Thomas  Slidell  publish  their  Digest  of 
Supreme  Court  Decisions. 

1842 — Having  made  secure  his  position  at  the  bar,  Benjamin  enters 
politics  ;  elected  to  the  lower  house  of  the  General  Assembly 
on  the  Whig  ticket. 

1844-1845 — Delegate  to  the  Louisiana  Constitutional  Convention. 

1846-1847 — Summons  his  mother  and  family  from  South  Carolina, 
and  establishes  them  on  "  Bellechasse "  plantation.  Re 
linquishes  much  of  his  law  practice  to  devote  himself  to 
sugar  planting.  Death  of  his  mother,  1847. 

1852— Elected  to  the  State  Senate ;  to  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States;  most  influential  delegate  to  the  Louisiana  Con 
stitutional  Convention.  During  this  period  is  prominent 
in  the  affairs  of  the  Jackson  Railroad  and  the  Tehuantepec 
Company. 

1856-1858 — Speech  on  the  Kansas  question  in  the  Senate ;  taking 
sides  in  the  growing  bitterness  of  the  slavery  question. 
The  Whig  party  goes  to  pieces,  and  Benjamin  finally  be 
comes  a  Democrat. 


18  CHEONOLOGY 

1859— Reflected  to  the  Senate. 

1860 — Split  iu  the  Charleston  Convention  (April)  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party.  Benjamin  takes  sides  against  Douglas,  and 
approves  of  the  secession  of  Southern  delegates.  Absent  in 
California  as  counsel  in  the  New  Almaden  mines  case  when 
Congress  assembles.  December  3d,  takes  his  seat  soon  after 
the  meeting,  and  declares  for  secession.  December  31st, 
delivers  a  great  speech  in  defense  of  the  Southern  position. 

1861— South  Carolina  having  seceded  on  December  20,  1860, 
Louisiana  follows,  January  26,  1861.  February  4th, 
Benjamin  and  Slidell  bid  farewell  to  the  Senate.  Benjamin 
returns  to  New  Orleans,  and  on  February  25th,  is  named 
Attorney-General  in  the  Confederate  Cabinet.  February 
18th,  inauguration  of  the  provisional  government  of  the 
Confederate  States.  March  4th,  inauguration  of  President 
Lincoln.  April  12th,  firing  on  Fort  Sumter.  July  21st, 
Bull  Run.  September  17th,  Benjamin  named  acting 
Secretary  of  War,  and  confirmed  in  the  office  by  the 
Confederate  Senate  in  November.  November-December, 
Mason  and  Slidell  sail  as  Confederate  Commissioners  to 
England  and  to  France  respectively ;  are  captured  by  the 
United  States  SS.  Son  Jacinto,  and  released  upon  the  de 
mand  of  England. 

1862 — January-February — Confederate  disasters  at  Roanoke  Island, 
Fort  Henry,  and  Fort  Donelson.  Censure  of  Benjamin  as 
Secretary  of  War.  February  22d,  formation  of  the  per 
manent  government  of  the  Confederacy.  President  Davis 
names  Benjamin  Secretary  of  State.  August-September, 
second  battle  of  Bull  Run,  Lee  crosses  into  Maryland,  but  is 
checked  at  Sharpsburg  or  Antietam  ;  frustration  of  Con 
federate  hopes  of  intervention  on  the  part  of  England  or 
France.  September  22d,  Lincoln  issues  Proclamation  of 
Emancipation. 

1863— May  IstnSd,  Chancellorsville,  death  of  Stonewall  Jackson. 
Lee  invades  Pennsylvania :  July  lst-3d,  Gettysburg. 
July  4th,  fall  of  Vicksburg.  The  Confederate  cause  hence 
forth  really  desperate,  though  the  struggle  is  kept  up  with 
vigor. 

1864 — March  3d,  Grant  appointed  Lieutenant-General,  assumes 
command  of  Union  armies  ;  in  June  he  begins  the  attack 
upon  Richmond  from  the  South.  September-December, 
Sherman  advances  to  Atlanta.  Duncan  F.  Kenner  sent  to 
Europe  with  full  powers  by  the  Confederacy. 


CHBONOLOGY  19 

1865 — February  3d,  fruitless  conference  between  Confederates  and 
Lincoln  at  Fortress  Monroe.  April  2d,  evacuation  of 
Kichmond,  retreat  of  the  Confederate  Government.  April 
9th,  Lee  surrenders  at  Appomattox.  April  14th,  assassina 
tion  of  Lincoln.  May  lOth-llth,  capture  of  President 
Davis.  Benjamin  makes  his  way  to  the  Florida  coast  and 
escapes,  landing  in  England  in  September. 

1866 — June,  Benjamin  called  to  the  bar  in  England. 
1868 — Publication  of  Benjamin  on  Sales  establishes  his  reputation. 
1872 — Made  Queen's  Counsel ;  his  wrecked  fortune  is  repaired. 
1880 — Severely  injured  by  a  fall  from  a  tram-car  in  Paris. 

1883 — Ketires  from  practice,  and  in  June  bids  farewell  to  the  bench 
and  bar  at  the  Temple  banquet. 

1884— May  6th,  dies  in  Paris. 


JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 


CHAPTEE  I 

BIRTH  AND  TRAINING 

OF  the  ancestry  of  Judah  P.  Benjamin  little  can  be 
given  with  sufficient  accuracy  to  warrant  me  in  repro 
ducing  it.  "I  suppose  there  never  was  a  family," 
writes  one  of  his  nephews,  "  whose  members  seemed 
to  know  so  little  of  their  own  history. "  Beyond  the 
fact  that,  on  the  mother's  side  at  least,  his  family  were 
Portuguese  Jews,  little  is  known  with  certainty.  Yet 
some  items  of  interest  may  be  ascertained,  and  of 
these  I  must  first  speak. 

According  to  the  recollection  of  one  of  the  older 
generation  of  the  family  still  surviving  (Mr.  Benjamin's 
niece),  the  home  of  Rebecca  de  Mendes,  the  mother  of 
Judah  P.  Benjamin,  was  near  Finnsbury  Circus,  Lon 
don.  How  many  members  of  the  family  there  were, 
and  what  was  their  occupation,  are  points  that  are  not 
known.  But  it  is  clear  that  they  were  people  of  some 
education  and  refinement,  though  probably  poor. 
There  were  several  daughters  in  the  family,  and  at 
least  one  son.  Tradition  reports  that  two  of  the  daugh 
ters  were  remarkable  for  their  beauty.  Two  of  them 
married  West  Indian  planters  and  moved  to  the  is 
lands  before  the  marriage  of  the  youngest  to  Philip 
Benjamin.  The  date  of  this  union  is  uncertain  ;  but 


22  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

there  seems  reason  to  fix  it  not  long  before  1808.  In 
the  materials  collected  by  Mr.  Lawley  for  his  proposed 
Life  of  Benjamin  it  is  simply  stated  that  "  little  is 
known  of  his  parents  beyond  a  vague  rumor  that 
when  resident  in  London  they  occupied  a  shop  in  one 
of  the  streets  leading  into  Cheapside,  near  Bow  Church, 
where  they  made  a  little  money  by  selling  dried  fruit." 
Mr.  Lawley  knew  Mr.  Benjamin  personally,  and  may 
have  had  his  authority  for  this  rumor  ;  but  it  cannot 
be  verified ;  and  the  present  writer  is  inclined  to  the 
belief  that,  though  Philip  Benjamin  may  have  lived 
near  Bow  Church,  it  was  before  his  marriage. 

When  taking  out  his  naturalization  papers  at  Charles 
ton,  S.  C.,  in  1826,  Philip  Benjamin  stated  that  he 
was  then  forty -four  years  of  age.  He  would  therefore 
have  been  twenty-six  in  1808.  It  seems  hardly  prob 
able  that  he  was  married  much  younger  than  that ;  and 
it  is  positive  that  he  and  his  wife  went  to  the  island  of 
St.  Croix,  or  St.  Thomas  (there  is  some  doubt  as  to 
which),  in  1808,  where  their  eldest  child,  Eebecca, 
was  born  in  the  following  year.  He  was  of  a  restless 
disposition,  a  rolling  stone,  and  apparently  never  suc 
cessful,  and  so  not  long  satisfied  anywhere.  The  re 
moval  to  the  West  Indian  island  may  have  been  made 
immediately  after  his  marriage.  And  his  selection  of 
the  West  Indies  as  a  place  in  which  to  seek  new  fortunes 
was  not  unlikely  due  to  the  fact  that  his  bride  had 
relatives  there  who  had  prospered.  At  all  events, 
there  are  no  certain  evidences  that  the  Benjamins  lived 
any  part  of  their  married  life  in  England  ;  and  their 
story  really  begins  in  St.  Thomas.1 

1  Benjamin  himself  declares  for  St.  Thomas  ;  see  below,  Chapter 
XIII. 


BIETH  AND  TKAINING  23 

This  island  at  the  time  was  a  British  possession, 
having  been  juggled  about  among  the  great  powers 
then  engaged  in  the  titanic  wars  of  Napoleon. 
Though  small,  and  long  since  fallen  from  its  high 
estate,  it  had  been  and  for  a  time  continued  to  be  some 
what  important  as  an  entrepot  for  the  thriving  West 
Indian  trade,  and  as  a  base  for  naval  operations.  What 
business  the  Benjamins  were  engaged  in  we  do  not 
know  :  but  they  did  not  prosper.  And  being  in  very 
straitened  circumstances  while  there,  they  probably  left 
no  such  impression  as  would  justify  our  putting  trust 
in  the  report  that,  some  years  ago,  the  house  in  which 
they  lived,  and  where  their  distinguished  son  came  into 
the  world,  could  still  be  identified. 

Judah  Philip,  the  second  child,  was  born  in  St. 
Thomas,  on  August  6,  1811,  and  his  early  boyhood 
was  spent  there.  Nearly  all  the  published  accounts  of 
Mr.  Benjamin  state  it  was  merely  chance  that  he  should 
have  been  born  under  the  Union  Jack,  since  his  parents, 
sailing  from  England  for  New  Orleans,  stopped  at  St. 
Thomas  only  because  the  British  fleet  was  already 
blockading  the  mouth  ^of  the  Mississippi,  previous  to 
the  outbreak  of  the  War  of  1812.  The  facts  thus  far 
given  are  certainly  sufficient  to  disprove  this  statement : 
there  was  no  blockading  fleet  in  1808 ;  and  if  it  had 
been  Philip  Benjamin's  intention  to  go  directly  to  the 
United  States,  he  could  easily  have  done  so.  When  the 
removal  was  made  is  not  altogether  certain :  dates  as 
early  as  1816  and  as  late  as  1825  have  been  suggested, 
and  by  those  who  knew  Mr.  Benjamin  in  his  youth  ; 
but  the  later  date  is  altogether  out  of  the  ques 
tion,  since  he  always  spoke  as  though  he  had  been 
brought  to  the  United  States  when  too  young  to  re- 


24  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

member  anything  clearly  about  his  first  home.  With 
a  man  of  Philip  Benjamin's  rather  aimless  habits,  it  is 
not  unlikely  that  the  mere  transfer  of  the  islands  from 
England  to  Denmark,  would  have  been  sufficient  to  urge 
him  to  move  from  a  place  where  fortune  had  not  smiled 
on  him ;  and  this  would  also  point  to  the  earlier  date. 

There  was  a  brisk  trade  in  those  days  between  the 
West  Indies  and  the  Carolinas,  where  some  of  Mrs. 
Benjamin's  relatives  were  already  settled,  one  being  a 
merchant  in  Fayetteville,  N.  C.  Philip  Benjamin  and 
his  family  went  to  the  Carolinas,  and  first  settled  at 
Charleston. 

Here  they  seem  to  have  lived  for  some  time,  their 
fortunes,  as  always,  at  a  very  low  ebb  ;  for  the  father 
was  i  i  that  rara  avis,  an  unsuccessful  Jew . ' '  The  family 
were  strict  Jews,  and  Mrs.  Benjamin,  at  least,  had  a  full 
share  of  that  pride  which  is  a  distinguishing  character 
istic  of  the  well-bred  of  her  race.  Her  granddaughter 
remembers  even  now  the  stern  and  severe  rule  of  the 
old  lady,  resolved  to  hold  her  head  high  in  spite  of 
poverty.  On  one  occasion  the  prosperous  sisters  in  the 
West  Indies,  probably  suspecting  the  true  state  of  af 
fairs,  sent  generous  chests  of  linen  and  other  luxuries. 
Mrs.  Benjamin  never  opened  them,  but  returned  them 
with  thanks,  and  the  assurance  that  her  needs  were 
provided  for.  But  the  less  offensive  kindness  and 
assistance  of  friends  and  relatives  nearer  at  hand  was 
not  rejected  ;  and  to  this  the  children  owed  their  edu 
cation.  The  family  had  increased  since  the  move  to 
Charleston.  Besides  Eebecca  and  Judah,  there  were 
two  brothers,  Solomon  and  Joseph,  then  Julia,  Harriet, 
and  Penina,  the  last  born  in  1824,  when  Judah  was 
finishing  his  school-days. 


BIETH  AND  TEAMING  25 

As  a  boy,  his  brightness  and  aptness  had  attracted 
attention  in  Charleston.  His  preparation  for  college 
was  had  in  Fayetteville,  N.  C. ,  where  he  and  his  sisters 
Eebecca  and  Harriet  lived  with  relatives.  The  Fay 
etteville  Academy  was  one  of  the  few  institutions  of  its 
kind  in  the  South, — one  of  the  oldest,  and  probably  the 
best,  with  a  full  and  good  corps  of  instructors,  and 
nearly  two  hundred  pupils.  Perhaps  we  had  best  try 
to  look  at  Judah  through  the  eyes  of  a  schoolmate. 
Mr.  E.  C.  Belden,  of  Spout  Spring,  N.  C.,  wrote  as  fol 
lows  '  in  1897 : 

"In  the  year  1825  [1822?]  Judah,  with  his  brother, 
Solomon,  and  sister,  Hannah  [Harriet],  came  to  Fayette 
ville,  N.  C.,  and  lived  with  their  aunt,  Mrs.  Wright, 
and  uncle,  Jacob  Levy,  the  former  of  whom  conducted 
a  fancy  dry-goods  store,  the  latter  a  commission  mer 
chant  and  largely  engaged  in  the  West  Indian  trade. 
Judah  soon  entered  the  Fayetteville  Academy,  and 
was  a  pupil  of  the  Eeverend  Colin  Mclver.  In  many 
respects  he  was  a  singular  boy.  Eeserved  in  manner,  he 
never  had  an  intimate  associate  while  at  school  ;  and 
during  recess,  when  the  boys  were  at  play,  he  was 
making  preparation  for  the  coming  lesson.  As  a 
scholar  he  was  uniformly  at  the  head  of  his  class,  and 
was  the  brightest  intellect  in  the  school.  His  residence 
in  Fayetteville  was  short, — about  eighteen  months. 

"Judah  and  myself  were  classmates  during  his 
school-days  in  Fayetteville.  Solomon,  Judah' s  brother, 


1Lawley  MS.,  from  which,  and  from  Mr.  Krnttschnitt's  family  I 
get  most  of  the  details  for  this  chapter.  Allowance  must  be  made 
for  certain  errors  of  memory  on  the  part  of  this  octogenarian  class 
mate,  errors  which  1  have  corrected  as  far  as  possible  by  insertions 
in  brackets. 


26  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

and  the  writer  were  great  friends.  I  previously  stated 
that  Judah  was  the  brightest  boy  in  the  school ;  I  will 
now  add,  I  never  knew  him  to  make  an  imperfect  reci 
tation,  and  the  ease  with  which  he  mastered  his  studies 
was  a  marvel  to  every  one  in  the  school,  teachers 
and  all. 

"I  think  I  stated  in  my  former  note  that  I  was 
eighty-six,  and  that  there  was  but  little  difference  be 
tween  mine  and  Judah' s  age. 

"The  i Fayetteville  Academy'  was  established  in 
1796,  and  incorporated  by  act  of  the  Legislature.  The 
town  made  a  tax  levy  to  purchase  the  site  and  erect  the 
building,  and  to  the  amount  thus  raised  the  leading 
citizens  of  the  place  made  generous  contributions. 
The  school  soon  acquired  distinction,  and  was  largely 
patronized  by  scholars  from  many  of  the  Southern 
states.  Men  of  national  renown,  including  Willie  P. 
Mangum,  for  many  years  Senator  in  Congress,  and 
William  E.  King,  also  a  Senator,  and  Yice-President 
of  the  United  States,  were  prepared  for  college  at  this 
school.  The  academy  was  destroyed  in  the  fire  of 
1831,  and  never  rebuilt.  The  number  of  scholars,  in 
both  departments,  at  the  time  that  Judah  was  a  stu 
dent,  must  have  been  between  two  and  three  hundred. ' ' 

Scanty  as  are  the  facts  here  given  of  Benjamin's 
schooling  (we  know  nothing  more),  the  letter  itself  is  a 
testimony,  I  think,  to  the  simple  thoroughness  of  the 
training  in  this  lost  institution.  After  completing  his 
preparation  at  Fayetteville,  young  Benjamin  returned 
to  Charleston.  Thence  he  went  to  New  Haven,  Conn. , 
and  entered  Yale  in  1825.  It  has  been  repeatedly  as 
serted  that  the  family  was  unable  to  pay  the  expenses 
of  his  college  education,  and  that  he  was  again  fortunate 


BIETH  AND  TKAINING  27 

in  finding  generous  friends.  The  Charleston  tradition 
is  that  the  necessary  money  was  supplied  by  Moses 
Lopez,  a  wealthy  Jewish  merchant,  and  president  of 
the  Hebrew  Orphans'  Aid  Society.  But  Professor  Sam 
uel  Porter,  of  Gallaudet  College,  Washington,  who  was 
a  member  of  his  class  at  Yale,  stated  that  ' i  his  expenses 
were  defrayed  by  a  charitable  lady  of  Massachusetts." 
It  is  a  matter  of  not  much  moment,  indeed ;  but  the 
inference  from  his  own  letter  below  is  that  neither  of 
these  statements  is  correct. 

From  the  records  at  Yale,  it  appears  that  Benjamin 
attended  the  college  for  nearly  three  sessions,  his  name 
appearing  in  the  catalogues  of  1825,  1826,  and  1827. 
There  is  no  proof  of  his  attaining  really  marked  dis 
tinction  ;  still  it  is  a  pleasure  to  note  that  there  is 
some  tradition  placing  him  among  the  best  scholars, 
and  that  this  tradition  is  supported  by  the  testimony  of 
Professor  Simeon  North,  afterward  President  of  Ham 
ilton  College,  who  was  Benjamin' s  " guardian"  at 
Yale,  and  who  took  charge  of  certain  of  his  effects  when 
he  left,  including  a  Hebrew  Psalter  and  a  Berkleian 
prize-book  inscribed  by  President  Day  '  *  for  excellence 
in  scholarship."  l  Any  laurels  he  may  have  won, 
however,  were  blasted  by  a  cruel  calumny  that  was  of 
the  spawn  of  bitter  partisanship  at  the  time  of  the  Civil 
War.  I  shall  mention  it  and  dismiss  it  here,  though 
events  must  be  anticipated ;  for  it  is  pleasant  to  feel 
that  one  has  done  with  such  a  matter. 

Just  prior  to  the  Civil  War,  when  political  animosi 
ties  tarnished  so  many  fair  names  and  embittered  so 
many  lives,  a  newspaper  article  purporting  to  come 
from  a  classmate  went  the  rounds  of  the  Northern  press 

1  Kohler,  Publications  Amer.  Jewish  Hist.  Soc.,  No.  12,  p.  68. 


28  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

with  the  assertion  that  the  needy  Jewish  student  at 
Yale  had  been  both  a  desperate  gambler  and  a  thief. 
One  night  after  he  had  gone  to  bed,  said  the  writer, 
and  when  Benjamin  believed  him  asleep,  he  had 
caught  his  roommate  going  through  his  pockets :  to 
avoid  exposure  and  summary  expulsion,  the  young 
man  had  left  Yale.  Immediately  upon  hearing  of 
this  attempt  to  poison  his  life-story  at  the  very  source, 
Mr.  Benjamin  employed  counsel  who,  being  in  the 
North,  could  best  serve  him  in  running  the  libel  to 
earth  and  prosecuting  those  responsible  for  it.  Of  the 
advice  he  received  from  Charles  O' Conor  and  S.  M. 
Barlow,  his  counsel ;  of  the  peculiar  embarrassment 
of  his  position  j  and  of  the  rallying  of  friends  to  his 
side,  one  learns  from  two  letters  to  his  devoted 
friends,  James  A.  and  Thomas  F.  Bayard.1  The  first 
is  dated  at  Montgomery,  from  the  Department  of 
Justice  of  the  Confederacy,  March  19,  1861,  and  is  in 
answer  to  a  letter  from  Mr.  James  A.  Bayard  of  Feb 
ruary  26th  : 

"I  preferred  a  suit  to  an  indictment  for  several 
reasons,  principally  because  it  gave  the  man  a  better 
chance  to  exhaust  all  possible  means  of  proving  the 
truth,  and  thereby  render  it  out  of  his  power  to  say 
that  if  he  could  have  taken  testimony  under  commis 
sion,  he  would  have  succeeded  in  establishing  a  justi 
fication  of  his  infamous  calumny.  But  O' Conor,  in 
stead  of  bringing  suit,  writes  a  letter  to  Barlow,  .  .  . 
the  tone  and  temper  of  which  are  so  manly  and  gen 
erous,  and  at  the  same  time  so  apparently  discreet  and 
wise,  that  he  has  almost  unsettled  me.  I  shall  advise 
with  my  friends  about  it  in  New  Orleans.  .  .  . 

1  Copies  of  these  and  other  interesting  letters  were  kindly  fur 
nished  me  by  Mrs.  W.  H.  Hilles,  daughter  of  T.  F.  Bayard,  Wil 
mington,  Del. 


BIRTH  AND  TRAINING  29 

"  I  am  decided  in  one  conviction ;  that  it  is  not  ad 
visable  to  have  any  publication  in  any  manner  or  form 
on  the  subject,  whether  from  myself  or  friends.  I  feel 
fully  your  kind  offer  to  make  a  communication  to  the 
editor  of  the  Confederacy  [sic]  but  of  what  use,  with 
such  infamous  scoundrels  as  those  who  have  evidently 
delighted  in  circulating  this  attack,  would  it  be  to  es 
tablish  the  absolute  impossibility  by  a  comparison  of 
dates  ?  I  left  college  in  the  fall  of  1827,  in  conse 
quence  of  my  father's  reverses  rendering  him  unable 
to  maintain  me  there  any  longer.  I  was  studying  law 
in  New  Orleans  in  February,  1828,  and  maintaining 
myself  whilst  so  doing,  by  giving  private  instruction 
in  two  families  in  New  Orleans.  The  statement  in  the 
libel  is  that  the  facts  occurred  in  the  fall  of  1828,  with 
one  Dyer  Ball,  whose  name  I  never  heard  before  in  my 
life.  Suppose  all  this  shown  in  a  publication  by  the 
most  conclusive  proof.  The  next  week  the  same  men 
come  out  and  say  they  were  mistaken  in  the  year  ;  that 
it  was  not  in  1828,  but  in  1827 — and  the  whole  affair 
again  goes  the  round  of  all  the  newspapers  at  the  North, 
with  the  most  malignant  comments  that  can  be  in 
vented.  If  I  get  friends  that  were  college  mates  to  state 
that  no  such  thing  ever  occurred,  the  answer  will  be 
that  only  a  few  were  engaged  in  the  scheme  for  ex 
posure  of  the  culprit,  and  that  they  promised  secrecy 
as  is  asserted  in  the  libelous  article  itself.  I  am  satis 
fied  that  nothing  is  advisable,  unless  it  be  a  suit  that 
will  sift  the  whole  story,  so  as  to  make  it  impossible  to 
evade  the  result  of  verdict  by  cutting  off  all  equivoca 
tions.  Yet  O7  Conor,  who  agrees  that  this  is  the  only 
mode,  advises  so  strongly  against  it,  that  I  must  mis 
trust  my  own  judgment. 

"I  send  you  an  article  cut  from  the  New  Orleans 
Delta  of  1st  March,1  which  appeared  since  I  left  there. 
I  have  but  a  single  copy,  as  the  paper  was  forwarded 
to  me  marked,  by  whom  I  know  not,  which  with  the 
exception  of  some  trifling  errors,  gives  you  a  fair  his- 

1  Should  be  2d  March. 


30  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

tory  of  my  life,  leaving  out  of  course  the  emphasis  of 
eulogium  contained  in  it.  One  error  is  of  time — I 
have  lived  in  New  Orleans  thirty-three  years  instead 
of  twenty-seven — I  did  not  pay  my  way  through  school 
and  college  by  labor,  but  was  thrown  on  my  own  re 
sources  early  in  the  fall  of  1827,  when  I  was  just  six 
teen  years  old,  having  been  born  on  6th  August,  1811. 
.  .  .  [The  article]  seems  to  show  O' Conor's  view  to 
be  right,  but  I  will  not  determine  finally  till  I  consult 
my  friends  further.'7 

Added  reflection  led  him  to  the  view  that  Mr. 
O' Conor  and  the  Delta  were  right,  and  that  it  were 
better  to  rest  his  defense  on  the  honor  and  upright 
ness  of  his  life  rather  than  on  any  mere  specific  attack 
upon  this  calumniator.  The  suit  at  libel,  moreover, 
would  have  been  a  practical  impossibility,  for  the  next 
letter,  to  Mr.  T.  F.  Bayard,  is  dated  April  5th,  less 
than  a  fortnight  before  the  firing  on  Sumter.  In  it  he 
says  :  "  I  have  your  kind  favor  of  the  30th  ultimo,  and 
am  exceedingly  touched  by  the  warm  and  genial  sym 
pathy  which  it  expresses.  When  I  look  back  a  few 
weeks  I  am  myself  somewhat  ashamed  that  I  could 
have  allowed  myself  to  be  moved  so  deeply  by  such  a 
cause,  and  yet  there  was  something  so  inexpressibly 
loathsome  and  revolting  at  the  bare  idea  of  having 
one's  name  published  in  the  newspapers  in  connection 
with  so  degrading  a  charge,  that  it  is  scarcely  to  be 
wondered  at,  that  feeling  should  usurp  the  place  of 
judgment.  However,  I  have  determined  to  yield  to 
the  advice  of  my  friends,  and  to  let  a  lifelong  career 
of  integrity  and  honor  make  silent  and  contemptuous 
answer  to  such  an  attack.  If  anything  could  compen 
sate  for  the  mortification  necessarily  incident  to  such 
an  abominable  outrage,  it  is  the  constant  receipt  from 


BIETH  AND  TBAINING  31 

valued  friends  of  just  such  letters  as  that  which  I  have 
been  gratified  in  receiving  from  you.  I,  however, 
needed  nothing  from  you  nor  from  any  one  bearing 
your  name  to  feel  assured  in  advance  of  the  light  in 
which  such  a  publication  could  be  received. " 

The  article  in  the  Delta  to  which  reference  is  made, 
showed  that  Mr.  O' Conor's  advice  had  indeed  been 
judicious,  and  with  this  quotation  we  may  close  the 
account  of  the  student  days  at  Yale:  "'We  have 
seen  a  letter  from  the  Hon.  J.  P.  Benjamin  to  a  gentle 
man  in  this  city,  announcing  his  intention  to  depart 
from  the  established  rule  of  his  life  so  far  as  to  prose 
cute  for  libel  some  one  or  more  of  the  more  prominent 
of  those  who  have  given  publicity  to  the  infamous 
calumny  in  reference  to  his  conduct  at  Yale  College 
years  ago.'  The  above,  from  the  Louisville  Courier, 
relates  to  one  of  the  vilest  and  most  infamous  attempts 
ever  made  to  blacken  the  reputation  of  a  public  man 
whose  great  talents,  astonishing  energy,  patriotic  and 
dignified  bearing  in  the  public  councils  have  elicited 
the  applause  and  admiration  of  the  whole  country. 
The  story  was  hatched  by  Abolition  malice,  and  the 
place  and  time  of  the  incidents  in  it  were  selected  with 
cunning  regard  to  the  difficulty  of  refutation.  .  .  . 
[The  calumny]  has  served  to  revive,  in  the  memories 
of  all  who  are  familiar  with  his  remarkable  career,  the 
recollection  of  the  innumerable  instances  of  his  gener 
osity,  his  devotion  to  his  relatives  and  friends,  the 
prodigality,  we  may  say,  of  his  beneficence,  and  the 
remarkable  absence  of  all  sordidness  in  his  whole  na 
ture  and  conduct." 


CHAPTEE  II 

LAW  AND  SUGAR 

FROM  New  Haven  Benjamin  returned  to  his  family ; 
but  he  was  of  a  spirit  too  self-reliant  and  proudly  in 
dependent  to  trust  to  them  for  support,  even  if  his 
father  had  been  in  a  position  to  help  him.  Philip 
Benjamin  had  a  small  shop  in  King  Street,  Charleston, 
but  had  made  no  success  of  his  business.  The  eldest 
daughter,  Eebecca,  to  whom  Judah  was  particularly 
attached,  had  been  married,  while  he  was  at  Yale,  to 
Mr.  Abraham  Levy,  in  1826.  And  it  was  not  long 
after  this  that  the  rest  of  the  family  removed  to  Beau 
fort,  S.  C.,  where  they  lived  for  ten  or  fifteen  years, 
and  where,  during  the  latter  part  of  this  period,  they 
were  supported  by  Judah,  the  father  having  proved 
utterly  unable  to  maintain  them.  The  boy  could  not 
have  remained  long  in  Charleston,  for  he  came  to  New 
Orleans  early  in  1828,  arriving,  it  is  said,  with  less 
than  five  dollars  in  his  pocket. 

In  his  need,  any  employment  was  welcome,  and  in 
spite  of  his  marked  intellectual  proclivities,  he  seems 
first  to  have  found  a  position  in  a  commercial  house. 
An  old  friend,  Mr.  J.  E.  Hamilton,  said l  he  had  often 
heard  Benjamin  declare  that  the  familiarity  he  then 
acquired  with  commercial  forms  and  procedure,  and 
bookkeeping,  stood  him  in  good  stead  in  after  years. 
Nothing,  however,  but  a  memory  of  this  mercantile 

lLawleyMS. 


LAW  AND  SUGAR  33 

episode  remains.  One  cannot  even  say  with  what  firm 
or  in  what  business  he  was  employed  ;  and  it  could  not 
have  been  for  long,  since  we  soon  find  him  at  what 
must  have  been  a  more  congenial  occupation,  as  clerk 
to  a  notary.  From  the  first  Benjamin  had  made  use 
of  every  spare  moment  to  prepare  himself  better  for 
the  battle  with  the  world.  After  business  hours  he 
studied  law ;  and  he  was  acute  enough  to  recognize  at 
once,  not  only  that  New  Orleans  offered  him  unusual 
facilities  for  acquiring  French  and  Spanish,  but  that  a 
thorough  familiarity  with  French,  particularly,  would 
profit  him  immensely  in  any  career,  mercantile  or  pro 
fessional.  Accordingly,  he  sought  private  pupils  who 
wanted  coaching  in  any  of  the  branches  he  felt  pre 
pared  to  teach — and  his  education,  even  so  unhappily 
truncated  as  it  had  been,  was  certainly  far  above  the 
average.  From  som6  pupils  he  received  fees ;  with 
others  an  exchange  was  affected,  he  teaching  English 
and  learning  French. 

The  notary  with  whom  Benjamin  served,  and  under 
whose  friendly  care  he  studied  law  more  regularly  than 
he  could  possibly  have  done  by  himself,  was  Mr. 
Greenbury  E.  Stringer.  The  friendless  and  all  but 
penniless  young  Jew  seems  to  have  been  very  fortunate 
in  finding  his  way  into  this  gentleman's  service  ;  for 
Mr.  Stringer  had  a  large  amount  of  notarial  business, 
and  therefore  many  clients  who  might  subsequently 
remember  the  young  man  studying  law  in  his  office ; 
and  he  was  moreover  highly  respected  as  a  man, 
and  a  good  friend  to  his  clerk  and  pupil.  One  day 
a  gentleman  from  the  country,  a  sugar-planter  of 
means  and  high  social  position,  wrote  to  Mr.  Stringer 
to  ask  whether  he  could  recommend  any  likely  young 


34  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

man  for  a  tutor.  Mr.  Stringer  replied  that  he 
thought  he  could  name  a  suitable  person  j  would 
the  gentleman  call  at  his  office  on  his  next  visit 
to  the  city?  The  gentleman  came,  was  introduced 
to  Benjamin,  and  had  an  interview  with  him.  "I'm 
sorry,"  he  told  Mr.  Stringer  afterward,  "  but  your 
young  man  won't  do."  "  What's  the  matter?  Can't 
he  teach  the  subjects  you  want?"  "  Oh,  yes,  and 
more  besides  ;  the  fact  is,  he' s  perfectly  wonderful.  But 
he's  so  fascinating  that  I'm  sure  my  girl  would  fall  in 
love  with  him  and  run  away  before  the  month  was  out. ' ' l 

The  story  itself  is  very  likely  apocryphal ;  but  it 
shows  the  impression  the  young  man  made  on  those 
around  him.  Moreover,  while  teaching  English  to 
Mile.  Natalie  St.  Martin,  Benjamin  not  only  learned 
French  of  the  best  sort  and  in  the  most  thorough  fash 
ion,  but  fell  in  love  himself.  The  young  lady  was 
strikingly  beautiful,  and  witty :  she  had,  besides,  great 
musical  talent  and  u  the  voice  of  a  prima  donna." 
Benjamin  was  called  to  the  bar  on  December  16,  1832, 
and  within  a  few  months  later  he  was  married. 

The  marriage  contract,  fixing  the  property  relations 
between  the  future  spouses,  was  passed  before  Louis 
Peraud,  Notary  Public,  February  12,  1833,  signed  by 
Jndah  Philip  Benjamin  and  Natalie  St.  Martin,  daugh 
ter  of  Auguste  St.  Martin  and  Frangoise  Peire.  The 
witnesses  were  Greenbury  E.  Stringer  and  Charles 
Maurian  on  the  part  of  the  husband,  and  Samuel  Her 
man  and  Alonzo  Morphy,  atone  time  a  justice  of  the 
Louisiana  Supreme  Court,  on  the  part  of  the  bride. 
The  exact  date  of  the  marriage  ceremony  is  not 

1  Anecdote  from  the  late  Dr.  Davidson,  of  New  Orleans,  in  a 
clipping  from  the  N.  0.  Democrat,  1880,  which  I  cannot  date. 


LAW  AND  SUGAE  35 

known  ;  but  it  is  customary  to  pass  the  notarial  act  on 
the  day  of  the  wedding,  or  not  long  before.  Mrs. 
Benjamin,  just  previous  to  her  death,  wrote  that  she 
had  been  married  on  February  16,  1832 ;  the  year  is 
manifestly  a  mistake  of  failing  memory  ;  but  she  would 
have  been  less  likely  to  make  a  mistake  as  to  the  day 
of  the  month,  which  accords  well  enough  with  the  date 
of  the  notarial  act.1 

The  bride  was  a  Creole,  i.  e.,  of  French  parentage, 
but  born  in  a  colony,  her  parents  being  refugees  from 
the  black  horror  of  St.  Domingo.  Though  socially  at 
tractive,  she  was  not  a  fit  companion  intellectually  for 
her  husband,  caring  far  more  for  brilliant  society  than 
for  domesticity.  And  she  was  a  devout  Catholic.  Mr. 
Benjamin  had  been  brought  up  a  Jew,  and  was  too 
proud  of  his  hereditary  religion,  however  slight  the 
hold  of  its  forms  and  practices  upon  him  in  after  life, 
ever  to  accept  the  Eonian  Catholic  or  any  other  creed. 
Marriages  between  persons  of  different  faiths  are  rarely 
wise  ;  and  when  neither  party  is  sufficiently  indifferent 
to  compromise,  they  can  hardly  help  proving  ill- 
assorted  and  unhappy.  If  there  ever  was  a  man  who 
loved  the  home,  and  knew  how,  even  when  preoccu 
pied  with  affairs  in  the  great  world,  to  give  himself  up 
to  the  little  loving  services  that  count  so  much  in  the 
daily  lives  of  the  family,  that  man  was  Judah  P.  Ben 
jamin.  He  did  not  care  for  wealth  for- himself;  he 
wished  to  make  ample  provision  for  the  comfort  of  all 
those  dependent  on  him  ;  he  wanted  a  home.  But  Mrs. 
Benjamin  did  not  share  his  simple  tastes  ;  and  though 
he  hid  his  unhappiness  most  scrupulously  from  the 
world,  from  his  most  intimate  friends,  and  even  from 

1  Letter  from  Mr.  Kruttschuitt,  Lawley  MS. 


36  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

his  own  family  as  far  as  he  could,  his  married  life  could 
not  have  been  other  than  a  disappointment  to  him. 

Since  Mrs.  Benjamin  really  entered  so  slightly  into 
his  career,  we  may  as  well  anticipate  events  just  enough 
to  complete  the  little  that  need  be  said  of  her  life  in 
America.  Mr.  Benjamin  was  soon  in  a  position  to 
supply  her  liberally  with  means,  and  she  entertained 
her  friends,  he  sharing  in  it  all  as  far  as  his  occupa 
tions  would  permit.  Their  home  was  at  first  in  the 
city,  on  Bourbon  Street ;  but  after  he  secured  an  in 
terest  in  "  Bellechasse  "  plantation,  Mrs.  Benjamin 
tried  life  there,  and  found  it  "  triste."  There  was  but 
one  child  who  lived  beyond  infancy,  Anne  Julie  Marie 
Natalie  Benjamin,  and  when  the  little  girl  was  between 
four  and  five  years  old  her  mother  moved  permanently 
to  Prance  to  educate  her,  and  Mr.  Benjamin  saw  them 
only  on  his  summer  trips,  almost  annual,  to  Paris. 

When  Judah  P.  Benjamin  was  married,  in  1833, 
he  had  his  own  living  to  make  ;  he  was  already  con 
tributing  something  to  the  support  of  his  mother  and 
sisters,  and  was  soon  to  have  to  provide  for  their  entire 
maintenance.  In  a  young  and  vigorously  growing 
American  city  like  the  New  Orleans  of  that  day,  for 
tunes  were  more  readily  and  rapidly  accumulated  than 
now ;  still,  Mr.  Benjamin's  rise  was  marvelous,  or 
what  the  newspapers  sometimes  call  "  meteoric."  His 
service  in  the  notary's  office  had  been  good  train 
ing  ;  it  had  taught  him  much  of  legal  forms  and  legal 
procedure  which  others  had  to  acquire  in  the  course  of 
their  profession  ;  it  had  made  him  a  ready  penman, 
and  developed  that  exquisitely  neat  and  accurate  chi- 
rography  which  distinguished  him  always  ;  it  had 
probably  brought  him  into  personal  contact  with  a 


LAW  AND  SUGAB  37 

large  number  of  clients  who  wonld  now  come  to  the 
young  lawyer.  But  unquestionably  the  most  potent 
factors  in  his  success  were  his  native  ability,  his  pleas 
ing  personality,  his  tremendous  energy,  and  his  capac 
ity  for  hard  work. 

It  has  been  stated  repeatedly  that  Benjamin  began 
his  practice  in  partnership  with  Thomas  Slidell,  or 
with  C.  M.  Conrad,  or  with  both  of  them  in  the  firm  of 
Slidell,  Benjamin,  and  Conrad.  He  was  early  associ 
ated  with  the  former  in  the  preparation  of  a  "  Digest 
of  the  Eeported  Decisions  of  the  Superior  Courts  in  the 
Territory  of  Orleans  and  State  of  Louisiana'7  (1834), 
which  brought  him  considerable  reputation  ;  and  he 
was  also  intimate  with  Mr.  Conrad ;  but  I  have  been 
unable  to  find  any  authority  for  the  statement  that  he 
was  then  in  partnership  with  either  of  them.  It  would 
have  been  more  like  him  to  be  self-reliant  and  start  in 
his  profession  by  himself.  Furthermore,  such  is  the  re 
port  given  me  by  a  member  of  the  family ;  and  the 
early  directories  of  New  Orleans  confirm  this  by  assign 
ing  Benjamin,  Slidell,  and  Conrad  to  separate  offices. 

Clients  come  but  slowly  at  first  to  every  young  law 
yer  ;  therefore  during  the  first  year  of  his  practice 
Benjamin  had  leisure  to  prepare  the  "Digest"  men 
tioned  above.  It  had  been  originally  intended  only 
for  his  own  use,  brief  annotations  accompanying  the 
resume  of  facts  and  analysis  of  the  court's  ruling  in 
notable  cases.  But,  encouraged  and  assisted  by  Mr. 
Slidell,  he  added  to  the  scope  of  the  notes,  and  in 
cluded  more  cases,  until  fellow  lawyers  right  and  left 
found  it  very  convenient  to  borrow  the  manuscript, 
whose  real  value  thus  became  apparent.  Then  the 
two  friends  revised  it,  and  published  it  in  book  form. 


38  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

While  of  course  not  ranking  as  a  creative  work  or  a 
standard  treatise  discussing  fundamental  principles — 
for  it  really  required  little  more  than  care  and  accu 
racy  in  compilation,  with  the  ability  to  write  an  intel 
ligent  synopsis — the  "  Digest"  was  recognized  as  a 
very  useful  work  to  the  Louisiana  lawyer,  and  had  suf 
ficient  sale  to  warrant  another  printing  within  a  few 
years.  This  revised  edition,  in  fact,  continued  to  hold 
the  field  for  many  years. 

Very  soon  after  he  began  his  practice,  however, 
Benjamin  had  cases  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  Lou 
isiana  ; l  and  but  a  glance  at  the  court  reports  subsequent 
to  1834  is  necessary  to  show  the  constantly  increasing 
frequency  with  which  his  name  appears.  Many  of 
these  early  cases,  doubtless  such  desperate  ones  as 
generally  come  to  young  practitioners  eager  to  under 
take  anything,  are  lost,  and  in  not  one  does  the  sum 
involved  or  the  issue  decided  appear  to  have  been  im 
portant.  Yet  the  volume  of  legal  business  indicated 
by  these  recorded  cases  is  noteworthy.  Before  his  ap 
prenticeship  at  the  bar  is  ended,  Benjamin's  name  be 
comes  at  least  as  frequent  in  the  reports,  if  not  in  con 
nection  with  the  larger  causes,  as  those  of  able  attor 
neys  who  had  several  years'  start  of  him.  Among 
these  men,  some  of  more  than  local  renown,  some  much 
older  and  some  younger  than  Benjamin,  were  the 
Slidells,  John,  afterward  Senator,  and  Thomas,  after 
ward  Chief  Justice  of  Louisiana  ;  Pierre  Soule,  foreign 
born  (like  Benjamin),  a  famous  orator,  and  one  day 
to  be  Minister  to  Spain,  when  he  will  sign  that  famous 
Ostend  Manifesto  that  startles  the  Union  in  1854  ; 

1  Louisiana  Reports,  VI,  100.,  Baron  vs.  Duncan,  Executor,  et.  al.; 
and  182,  Spurrier  vs.  Sheldon  et.  al, 


LAW  AND  SUGAE  39 

Christian  Eoselius,  also  a  foreigner,  risen  from  the 
hardest  poverty  to  be  a  lawyer  whose  opinion  is  highly 
prized,  a  man  whose  sturdy  honesty  all  respect ;  F.  B. 
and  C.  M.  Conrad,  both  prominent  in  the  politics  of 
the  South  j  Mazureau,  the  greatest  of  the  Creole  law 
yers  ;  John  E.  Grymes,  some  time,  like  John  Slidell, 
to  be  a  serious  political  rival  of  Benjamin  ;  and  a  host 
of  others — Levi  Peirce,  L.  C.  Duncan,  E.  Seghers— 
whose  names  are  now  less  familiar  because  they  pre 
ferred  law  to  politics.  It  was  a  very  able  bar,  and  a 
very  large  one  for  a  town  of  less  than  fifty  thousand  in 
habitants.  But  the  volume  of  commercial  business 
then  flowing  through  New  Orleans  was  out  of  all  pro 
portion  to  the  population.  Benjamin  had  chosen 
wisely  in  coming  here  to  begin  his  life-work,  for  the 
town  had  already  grown  and  for  thirty  years  was  to 
continue  growing  with  that  marvelous  rapidity  which 
has  become  so  common,  under  improved  conditions  of 
communication,  that  it  ceases  to  be  a  marvel.  Given 
a  favorable  situation,  such  as  that  of  New  Orleans  at 
the  mouth  of  a  great  river,  and  steam  applied  to  trans 
portation  would  work  wonders.  Already  to  New 
Orleans  the  Mississippi  boats  brought  a  vast  business, 
soon  to  be  added  to  when  steamships  replaced  the  sail 
ing  vessels  and  railways  supplemented  the  steamboats. 
It  was  a  thriving  commercial  city,  where  fortunes  were 
quickly  made.  And  where  commerce  thrives  the  law 
yer  does  also. 

This  partly  explains,  no  doubt,  Benjamin's  rapid 
success.  There  were  many  men  at  the  bar  of  far  less 
brilliance  than  he  who  nevertheless  made  handsome 
fortunes  ;  for  any  attorney  of  fair  talent  could  not  fail 
to  find  plenty  to  do.  It  was  in  the  field  of  commercial 


40  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

law  that  Benjamin  labored.  He  certainly  had  more 
than  average  ability ;  and  he  worked,  said  a  contem 
porary,  "as  few  men  have,  before  or  since.77  Pains 
taking  and  accurate  to  the  smallest  detail  in  getting  up 
his  cases,  he  had  then  as  always  an  immense  capacity 
for  work,  and  he  labored  with  such  intensity  and  con 
centration  that  he  completed  his  task  with  what 
seemed  incredible  celerity.  Scarcely  one  of  those  who 
have  told  of  his  achievements  at  the  bar  has  failed  to 
note  his  powers  of  logical  analysis  ;  with  the  most 
complex  matters  of  fact  or  of  law  before  him,  his  mind 
at  once  singled  out  the  essential,  the  vital  point  at 
issue  ;  and  seeing  this  clearly  himself  he  could  present 
his  view  disencumbered  of  confusing  details.  But  this 
quickness  of  apprehension,  and  power  of  logical  pre 
sentation,  which  might  have  been  a  temptation  to  care 
lessness  and  superficiality  was,  as  we  have  said,  guarded 
by  the  most  thorough  mastery  of  detail.  The  per 
fect  balance  of  Benjamin's  temperament,  his  complete 
self-command  and  easy  good-humor  under  the  most 
trying  conditions,  and  the  deceptive  air  of  being 
always  unpreoccupied  and  free  to  devote  his  time  to 
things  other  than  business,  gave  many  the  impression 
that  his  learning  was  easily  acquired.  On  the  con 
trary,  his  legal  knowledge  was  the  fruit  of  hard  labor ; 
whatever  of  genius  there  may  have  been,  there  was 
also  plenty  of  steady  work. 

To  the  lay  reader  any  extended  treatment  of  the 
suits  in  which  Benjamin  appeared  would  prove  tedious. 
Most  of  these  suits,  moreover,  deal  with  commercial 
law,  and  hence  do  not  in  any  way  bring  up  issues  of 
general  public  interest.  But  in  1842  Benjamin,  at  that 
time  with  Slidell  and  Conrad,  had  a  case,  or  rather  a 


LAW  AND  SUGAR  41 

series  of  cases,  that  attracted  wide  attention,  involving 
as  they  did  international  complications  that  might 
have  led  to  a  serious  clash  with  England.  The  brig 
Creole,  engaged  in  the  coasting  slave-trade,  shipped 
a  lot  of  negroes  at  Richmond,  Norfolk,  and  other  points 
in  Virginia,  for  New  Orleans.  While  on  the  high  seas, 
nineteen  of  the  slaves  mutinied,  killed  the  agent  of 
one  of  their  owners,  seriously  wounded  the  captain, 
and  obtained  complete  control  of  the  vessel.  They 
then  forced  the  crew  to  change  the  course  and  make 
for  Nassau.  On  arrival  there  the  mate  jumped  into 
the  quarantine  boat,  was  taken  ashore,  and  appealed 
to  the  American  consul  for  protection  for  the  ship. 
The  British  officials  guarded  the  Creole,  and  kept  the 
slaves  from  landing  or  holding  communication  with 
other  boats.  In  due  time  the  Attorney -General  for 
the  island,  accompanied  by  magistrates,  boarded  the 
vessel  and  took  depositions  on  the  mutiny,  establish 
ing  the  guilt  of  the  nineteen  leaders,  whom  they  pro 
posed  to  hold  for  the  murder  of  the  agent  and  assault 
upon  the  captain  and  crew.  Thus  far  both  parties 
are  in  agreement ;  of  the  subsequent  happenings  there 
are  two  versions, — that  of  the  American  crew  and 
passengers,  and  that  of  the  British  officials.  The 
former  alleged  that  the  Attorney-General  and  the  mag 
istrates,  after  establishing  the  guilt  of  the  actual 
mutineers,  announced  to  the  rest  of  the  negroes  that 
they  were  free  to  go  ashore,  and  that,  being  once  on 
British  soil,  they  would  no  longer  be  slaves.  This  was 
directly  contradicted  by  the  British,  who  testified  that 
this  announcement  was  made  by  a  passenger,  and  that 
the  responsible  officers  of  the  vessel,  standing  by, 
made  no  protest,  and  no  effort  to  hinder  their  landing. 


42  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

The  Commercial  Court  of  New  Orleans  first  con 
sidered  the  suits  brought  by  the  owners  of  the  liber 
ated  slaves  to  recover  from  the  insurance  companies. 
There  were  a  number  of  separate  suits,  e.  g.,  McCargo 
vs.  The  New  Orleans  Insurance  Company,  and  Lockett 
vs.  Merchants'  Insurance  Company,1  in  which  F.  B. 
Conrad,  T.  Slidell,  and  J.  P.  Benjamin  represented  the 
insurance  companies.  The  case  of  McCargo  vs.  The 
New  Orleans  Insurance  Company  will  serve  for  what 
brief  comment  we  can  make.  The  suit  was  lost  in  the 
lower  court,  judgment  for  $18,400  being  given  against 
the  underwriters.  The  brief  on  appeal  to  the  State 
Supreme  Court  was  prepared  by  Benjamin,  and  was 
an  exhaustive  consideration  of  the  wider  aspects  of  the 
case  5  the  judgment  of  the  lower  court  was  reversed. 
Benjamin's  argument  is  most  elaborate  and  lucid, 
clearly  establishing  that  the  liberation  of  the  slaves 
was  not  due  to  "  foreign  interference"  (covered  by  the 
policy),  but  to  u  the  force  and  effect  of  the  law  of 
nature  and  of  nations  on  the  relations  of  the  parties, 
against  which  no  insurance  was  or  could  be  legally 
made."  This  is  the  eighth  and  final  point  in  the  argu 
ment  to  prove  that  the  insurance  company  was  not 
liable,  the  others  being  based  on  more  technical 
grounds  and  supported  by  copious  legal  references. 
And  this  point  is  the  more  interesting  to  us  because 
its  proof  involves  an  examination  of  the  status  of 
slavery  in  the  law  of  nations.  Mr.  Benjamin,  him 
self  a  slave-owner,  and  afterward  in  the  Senate  one  of 
the  most  able  defenders  of  the  institution,  here  quotes 
the  very  passage  of  the  Eoman  law  about  which  he  was 
later  to  have  a  debate  with  Seward :  "  Slavery  is 

1 10  Robinson's  Louisiana  Reports,  202  and  339, 


LAW  AND  SUGAR  43 

against  the  law  of  nature ;  and  although  sanctioned 
by  the  law  of  nations,  it  is  so  sanctioned  as  a  local  or 
municipal  institution,  of  binding  force  within  the 
limits  of  the  nation  that  chooses  to  establish  it,  and  on 
the  vessels  of  such  nation  on  the  high  seas,  but  as  hav 
ing  no  force  or  binding  effect  beyond  the  jurisdiction 
of  such  nation.7' 1 

The  "  Creole  case"  involved  issues  that  made  it  not 
only  a  cause  celebre  but  a  matter  for  diplomatic  negotia 
tions.  With  these  we  are  not  concerned ;  but  this  suit 
was  probably  the  first  which  spread  Benjamin's  name 
over  the  Union.  His  brief  was  printed  in  pamphlet 
form  and  widely  circulated  ;  and  it  seems  rather  pro 
phetic,  when  we  look  at  it  from  our  vantage  ground  of 
sixty  years,  that  his  name  should  thus  first  have  be 
come  widely  known  in  connection  with  slavery. 

But  Benjamin's  reputation  as  an  attorney  depended 
not  on  "Creole  cases."  Already,  in  1842,  he  very 
likely  had  a  practice  as  lucrative  as  that  of  any  lawyer 
in  New  Orleans.  Fees  regarded  as  enormous  in  those 
days  were  given  to  retain  him,  or  to  secure  his  opinion. 
Unfortunately,  the  details  of  all  this  business  can  only 
be  guessed  at ;  but  we  have  an  index  to  his  reputation  in 
an  interesting  little  volume  that  was  issued  in  New  Or 
leans  in  1846 :  Sketches  of  Life  and  Character  in 
Louisiana.  The  sketches,  originally  appearing  in  the 
New  Orleans  newspapers8  were  anonymous,  but  are 
known  to  have  been  by  Judge  Whitaker,  afterward 
a  quite  distinguished  member  of  the  bar  whose  famous 
members  he  described.  What  he  says  of  Mr.  Ben 
jamin  is  for  the  most  part  so  apt  and  so  useful,  as 

1 10  Robinson's  Louisiana  Reports,  p.  279. 
2  The  Bee  and  The  Jeffersonian. 


44  JUDAH  P.  BESTJAMIH 

giving  a  contemporary  view,  that  I  shall  quote  lib 
erally  : 

"  Benjamin  is  emphatically  the  Commercial  Lawyer  of 
our  city,  and  one  of  the  most  successful  advocates  at 
our  bar.  .  .  .  He  is  remarkable  for  the  vivacity  of 
his  features,  his  sparkling  and  intelligent  eyes,  the 
perfect  neatness  and  elegance  of  his  costume,  and  the 
finished  courtesy  of  his  manners.  He  is  rather  below 
the  middle  height,  though  well  proportioned.  From 
his  appearance,  he  would  scarcely  be  taken  for  a 
student,  though  perhaps  as  industrious  a  man  as  there 
is  in  the  city,  and  to  be  found  at  his  office  early  and 
late,  never  neglecting  business  for  social  enjoyments, 
or  the  calls  of  pleasure.  Mr.  Benjamin  is  a  man  fitted 
to  adorn  any  circle,  however  distinguished  for  elegance 
or  refinement,  and  yet  at  the  same  time,  we  find  him 
the  severe  and  untiring  devotee  to  his  profession. 

' l  As  a  speaker,  he  is  calm,  collected,  forcible,  though 
sometimes  a  little  too  rapid  in  his  elocution.  His  voice 
has  a  silvery,  mellifluous  sweetness,  and  seldom  jars 
upon  the  ear  by  degenerating  into  shrill  or  harsh  tones. 
His  style  is  distinguished  for  its  conciseness  and  close 
adherence  to  the  matter  in  hand.  He  never  goes  in 
search  of  flowers  or  metaphors,  and  yet,  when  occasion 
oifers,  uses  them  with  skill  and  appositeness.  His 
manner  and  gesture  are  graceful  and  finished  ;  and  his 
language  the  purest  and  most  appropriate  English. 
To  his  many  scholarly  acquirements  he  adds  the  French 
language,  which  he  speaks  with  fluency  and  elegance. 
In  his  converse  with  the  world  he  is  sociable  and 
agreeable,  and,  I  believe,  generally  admired  and  liked 
by  those  who  know  him  intimately. 

11  Mr.  Benjamin  is  by  birth,  and  as  his  name  imports, 
an  Israelite.  Yet  how  far  he  still  adheres  to  the  re 
ligion  of  his  fathers,  I  cannot  tell,  though  I  should 
doubt  whether  the  matter  troubled  him  much.  In  his 
politics,  he  is  a  Whig,  and  one  of  the  lights  of  the 
party  in  this  city.  He  is,  too,  if  I  mistake  not,  some- 


LAW  AND  SUGAB  45 

thing  of  a  writer,  and  has  contributed  his  quota  to  the 
literature  of  the  South.  .  .  .  It  is  very  evident 
that  Mr.  Benjamin  seeks  rather  the  distinction  of  being 
a  thorough  and  accomplished  lawyer,  than  that  of  a 
literary  man  or  politician.  In  business  he  is  ever 
ready,  never  for  a  moment  at  a  loss.  This  readiness, 
this  activity  of  mind,  are  the  fruits  of  labor  and  of 
study  ;  he  has  not  been  a  close  student  for  nothing. 

"Mr.  Benjamin  cannot  be  more,  certainly,  than 
thirty-six,  and  yet  deserves  a  niche  among  the  veterans 
of  our  bar.  I  dwell  long  upon  this  picture,  as  I  think 
it  may  be  studied  with  advantage  by  young  practition 
ers  who  seek  distinction." 


Accompanying  the  sketch  of  Benjamin  is  one  of  Ban- 
dell  Hunt ;  and  the  writer's  contrast  of  the  two  is  in 
some  points  instructive  : 

"  Composure,  coolness,  and  perfect  self-possession 
characterize  the  manner  of  Benjamin,  while  Hunt,  in 
his  fondness  for  display,  is  more  excited,  more  passion- 
ate,  more  energetic.  With  Benjamin  every  word  has 
a  meaning,  every  expression  is  germane  to  the  matter. 
.  .  .  The  peculiar  department  of  law  to  which  the 
younger  counselor  has  directed  his  attention  has  prob 
ably  conduced  to  the  severity  of  his  style,  and  the  plain, 
businesslike  features  by  which  it  is  characterized. 
.  .  .  Mr.  Benjamin  in  his  peculiar  walk,  is  the 
best  lawyer  of  the  two,  and  the  more  attached  to  his 
profession  for  the  love  of  it.  Mr.  Hunt  aims,  we  should 
think,  greatly  more  at  political  distinction,  though  we 
should  not  be  in  the  least  surprised  if  the  younger 
counselor  got  the  start  of  him." 

There  are  several  significant  points  in  this  little  bit 
of  gossipy  character-drawing  that  tempt  one  to  pause 
for  comment.  In  the  first  place,  the  closing  remark 


46  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

was  an  apt  prophecy  ;  for  Hunt  was  soon  to  be  quite 
distanced  in  public  life  by  his  competitor.  Besides 
this,  one  cannot  help  noting  the  reference  to  Benjamin's 
religion.  In  the  absence  of  direct  evidence  it  is  im 
possible  to  speak  with  decision,  but  it  may  be  doubted 
if  he  had  in  any  way  kept  up  his  connection  with  the 
Jewish  church  since  his  arrival  in  New  Orleans.  He 
had  undoubtedly  been  reared  to  a  very  strict  observance 
of  his  faith  ;  and  the  fact  that  he  was  known  as  a  Jew 
at  Yale,  and  that  he  possessed  there  a  copy  of  the 
Hebrew  Psalter,  would  indicate  that  up  to  that  time  he 
had  remained  a  professing  Jew.  But  soon  after  his 
coming  to  New  Orleans,  an  intensely  Catholic  com 
munity,  we  find  him  intimately  associated  with 
Catholics,  rather  than  with  those  of  his  own  race. 
His  marriage  to  a  devout  Catholic,  too,  would  in  itself 
indicate  apathy,  at  least,  toward  his  faith.  And  we 
have  direct  evidence  to  show  how  very  lax  were  the 
few  Jews  in  New  Orleans  at  the  time.  Even  if  he  had 
been  temperamentally  religious, — and  he  certainly  was 
not — or  inclined  to  -elect  his  associates  from  among 
the  Jews,  the  atmosphere  of  the  city  would  have  been 
most  unfavorable.  A  writer  in  the  Allgemeine  Zeitung 
des  Judenthums1  reports  that,  though  there  were 
about  seven  hundred  Jewish  families  in  New  Orleans, 
only  four  kept  a  Kosher  table,  and  only  two  observed 
Saturday  as  Sabbath.  The  synagogue  accommodated 
only  about  fifty  persons,  and  t  i  the  former  Eabbi,  a 
Dutchman,  had  married  a  Catholic  wife,  who  was  re 
strained  with  difficulty  from  sending  a  crucifix  to  his 
grave  with  her  husband  on  his  death."  2 

1 1842,  Vol.  VI,  p.  294. 

8  Quotation  and  references  from  Kohler,  p.  68. 


LAW  AND  SUGAR  47 

In  such  an  atmosphere,  the  faith  of  his  fathers  was 
not  apt  to  retain  its  hold  upon  the  successful  lawyer 
and  aspiring  politician,  of  whom  a  newspaper  could 
say,  in  the  height  of  that  first  "native  American  " 
hysteria  with  which  he  was  inclined  to  sympathize, 
"Of  Mr.  Benjamin's  religious  views  we  know  noth 
ing."  '  He  did  not  forswear  Judaism  or  conceal  his 
Jewish  origin  j  he  remained  always  (so  testifies  an  old 
friend  who  held  many  arguments  on  the  subject  with 
him  in  later  years)  a  firm  believer  in  immortality  and 
in  a  personal  Divinity  ;  he  was  not  ashamed,  rather 
justly  proud,  of  his  lineage,  and  in  temperament  al 
ways  retained  much  of  the  best  of  the  traits  of  his 
people ;  but  he  had  ceased  to  hold  any  active  com 
munion  with  Judaism. 

These  habits  of  indifference  must  have  become  firmly 
fixed  within  the  first  ten  or  fifteen  years  of  his  resi 
dence  in  New  Orleans  ;  for  long  before  that  time  had 
passed  he  was  in  circumstances  sufficiently  prosperous 
actively  to  renew  his  association  with  his  family  in 
South  Carolina.  Almost  yearly,  in  the  dull  summer  sea 
son,  he  used  to  visit  his  mother  and  sisters,  taking  with 
him  supplies  of  such  things  as  would  add  to  their  com 
fort  or  conduce  to  their  pleasure.  Always  there  was  a 
trunk  full  of  the  latest  books ;  and  during  his  stay  it 
was  his  delight  to  read  the  thrilling  novels  to  them,  to 
tease  them  by  breaking  off  short  whenever  one  of 
Mr.  G.  P.  E.  James's  lone  horsemen  or  distressed 
maidens  was  found  in  a  predicament  more  than  usually 
unhappy.  Into  all  their  pleasures  he  entered  with 
the  hearty  zest  of  a  boy  on  his  holidays,  and  it  was  a 
holiday  for  him.  He  was  by  this  time  practically 

1  New  Orleans  Courier,  Nov.  23,  1844. 


48  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

their  sole  support,  and  was  maturing  plans  to  bring 
them  nearer  him,  where  he  could  more  constantly 
see  to  their  well-being. 

The  large  profits  of  his  practice  before  the  bar  were 
not  squandered,  though  generously  expended.  In  the 
early  forties,  he  acquired  an  interest  in  a  large  sugar 
plantation,  "  Bellechasse,"  in  the  Parish  of  Plaque- 
mines,  below  New  Orleans,  and  on  a  visit  to  his 
mother  in  1846,  he  was  able  to  announce  to  her  that 
they  should  soon  have  a  home  of  their  own  in  Louisiana. 
But  about  this  time  he  was  to  suffer  a  reverse  that  for 
awhile  plunged  him  into  despondency,  and  ultimately 
led  to  his  temporary  retirement  from  the  bar. 

The  severity  of  the  strain  to  which  he  had  subjected 
his  health,  and  particularly  his  eyesight,  had  not  been 
realized  in  the  buoyancy  of  success.  Now  his  eyes 
suddenly  gave  out,  so  that  for  some  months  he  was 
utterly  incapacitated  for  the  pursuit  of  his  profession, 
and  as  thoroughly  depressed  as  energetic  and  ambi 
tious  temperaments  are  by  what  seems  an  entirely  use 
less  and  incomprehensible  check  upon  progress.  One 
of  his  contemporaries  used  to  recall  this  as  a  period 
when  even  Mr.  Benjamin  was  despondent  and  moody.1 
It  is  small  wonder  that  he  was  so,  for  the  blow  came 
at  a  time  when  he  was  just  beginning  to  feel  himself 
secure  in  the  anticipation  of  unselfish  pleasures  for 
which  he  had  labored  devotedly.  But  the  period  of  de 
pression  did  not  endure  long.  He  resolved  to  re 
linquish  his  practice,  and  give  himself  more  assidu 
ously  to  the  fascinating  occupation  of  cultivating 
sugar-cane. 

At  the  time  when  Mr.  Benjamin  became  interested 

1  The  late  Mr.  Henry  J.  Leovy. 


LAW  AND  SUGAE  49 

in  sugar-making,  that  great  Louisiana  industry  was 
yet  in  its  infancy.  Many  of  the  plantations  in  what 
is  now  the  great  sugar  and  rice  district  of  the  state 
were  still  devoted  to  the  growing  of  cotton,  though  the 
soil  was  by  no  means  well  adapted  to  that  plant. 
Much  of  the  land  now  under  cultivation  was  yet  un 
cleared  of  the  dense  growth  of  timber,  the  forest 
primeval  of  majestic  live-oak  and  impenetrable  cane- 
brakes  ;  much  was  believed  to  be  incapable  of  cultiva 
tion  because  of  bad  drainage,  being  swamp-land  sub 
ject  to  overflow  from  the  great  river  and  from  every 
freshet  in  the  numerous  bayous  and  chains  of  lakes 
that  honeycomb  southern  Louisiana.  Furthermore, 
where  sugar  was  cultivated,  the  methods  were  ex 
tremely  crude.  The  absolute  essentiality  of  good 
drainage  was  understood,  but  the  drainage  systems 
were  very  imperfect,  laid  out  in  rough-and-ready 
fashion  that  too  often  accomplished  the  minimum  of 
good  at  the  maximum  of  cost.  Few  planters  realized 
the  necessity  of  fertilizing  a  soil  apparently  so  rich, 
but  soon  exhausted  by  the  cane  ;  few  even  understood 
the  advantage  of  rotation  of  crops,  but  used  one  field 
till  it  was  exhausted  and  then  cleared  a  fresh  tract  of 
timber.  The  possibility  of  improving  the  plant  by 
careful  selection  of  the  seed,  and  by  importation  of 
new  varieties,  was  but  little  appreciated.  And  when 
the  crop  was  grown,  the  cane  was  ground  in  little, 
primitive  mills  that  could  extract  but  a  small  propor 
tion  of  its  saccharine  juice,  which,  scarcely  freed 
from  even  its  grosser  impurities,  was  then  boiled  in 
large  "open  kettles"  to  the  point  of  granulating; 
then  laboriously  ladled  out  into  shallow  wooden  boxes 
called  "coolers,"  where  the  wet  sugar,  brown  with 


50  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

impurities,  would  settle  to  the  bottom,  leaving  a  large 
proportion  of  delicious  but  uncrystallizable  "cooler 
molasses ' '  on  top.  There  was  no  science  in  the  process, 
and  consequently  much  waste.  For  in  the  excessive 
production  of  molasses  alone  the  planter  lost  a  great 
proportion  of  the  most  valuable  product  of  his  cane, 
sugar  being  worth  many  times  what  molasses  was. 

Those  of  us  who  can  remember  the  delights  of  the 
old  "open  kettle "  process,  with  its  delicious  by 
products  of  sirop  de  batterie,  cuite,  and  cooler  molasses, 
may  have  a  lingering  regret  that  improved  methods 
have  brought  more  sugar  out  of  the  cane  juice,  and 
infinitely  more  money  into  the  pockets  of  the  planters, 
at  the  expense  of  all  these  good  things.  Mr.  Benjamin 
became  interested  in  the  subject  just  when  some  half- 
dozen  progressive  planters  were  beginning  to  attempt 
improvements  in  the  manufacture  of  sugar.  He  was 
by  no  means  a  pioneer,  though  he  was  among  the 
earliest  successful  experimenters.  Unquestionably, 
however,  his  intelligence,  added  to  his  superior  ad 
vantages  through  foreign  travel,  knowledge  of  foreign 
languages,  and  naturally  scientific  habit  of  mind,  gave 
him  a  preeminence  in  a  business  in  which  men  who 
had  been  at  it  all  their  lives  regarded  him  somewhat 
enviously  and  contemptuously  as  an  unpractical  theorist 
and  tyro.  These  points  merit  some  emphasis  at  our 
hands  because  there  was  a  good  deal  of  jealousy  and 
ill-feeling  at  the  time,  and  because  various  biographical 
notices  of  Mr.  Benjamin  have  set  up  unwarranted 
claims  for  him.  His  just  due  is  quite  enough,  without 
making  extravagant  assertions,  as  if  he  were  the  fa 
ther  of  sugar  chemistry  and  the  pioneer  in  the  new 
process  of  boiling  sugar  in  vacuum. 


LAW  AND  SUGAE  51 

The  explanation  of  the  fact  that  Mr.  Benjamin  has 
been  given  credit  for  things  which  he  never  dreamed 
of  claiming  as  his  own,  lies  in  this :  He  was  a  clear 
and  fluent  writer,  and  was  the  first,  in  Louisiana,  to 
print  really  accurate,  lucid,  and  scientific  descriptions 
of  the  improved  methods  used  by  others  as  well  as 
by  himself.  Plunging  into  the  theoretic  side  of  the 
question  with  his  usual  enthusiasm, — throughout  his 
life  it  was  noted  that,  even  for  a  lawsuit,  he  would 
subject  himself  to  any  amount  of  labor  in  order  to  learn 
all  about  any  practical  or  theoretical  points  involved, 
from  sailing  a  ship  to  building  a  railway — he  quickly 
mastered  the  essentials  of  the  discoveries  then  being 
made  by  the  French  chemists,  saw  their  practical  ap 
plication,  and  proceeded  to  advocate  the  new  methods 
in  a  series  of  papers  published  in  the  once  famous 
De  Bow's  Review. 

These  articles,  though  necessarily  filled  with  tech 
nical  details,  are  wonderfully  readable,  and  could  still 
be  perused  with  profit,  despite  the  continuous  improve 
ment  in  the  making  of  sugar.  For  the  great  majority 
of  their  readers  (and  the  periodical  had  a  wide  circu 
lation),  they  first  elevated  the  whole  process,  from  the 
cane-field  to  the  finished  white  sugar,  into  a  science 
where  nothing  was  to  be  left  to  luck  or  done  without 
forethought  of  its  effect ;  where  every  item  of  expense 
and  of  profit  was  calculated  ;  where  chemical  princi 
ples  that  ignorance  had  despised  as  of  no  practical  use 
v^ere  shown  to  have  the  most  direct  practical  bearing 
in  dollars  and  cents.  Even  now  there  are  many, 
especially  of  those  engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits, 
who,  to  their  cost,  despise  pure  science.  To  these  peo 
ple  it  would  seem  a  barren  fact,  that  a  liquid  in 


52  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

vacuum  will  boil  at  a  temperature  much  lower  than 
that  necessary  in  the  open  air.  But  with  such  a  dem 
onstration  as  Benjamin  was  able  to  give,  that  the 
application  of  this  principle  and  others  of  like  appar 
ent  remoteness  from  common  sense  and  the  teachings 
of  their  fathers  meant  an  immense  increase  in  the 
money  returns  from  sugar,  prejudice  was  constrained 
to  yield  at  last.  For  his  efforts  at  popularizing  useful 
scientific  knowledge  Mr.  Benjamin  would  deserve  to 
be  remembered  in  the  agricultural  history  of  the  coun 
try,  even  had  he  done  nothing  else. 

In  the  first  article,  "Louisiana  Sugar,7'1  he  gives 
general  comment  and  useful  practical  suggestions  on 
drainage,  planting  the  cane,  fertilization,  cultivation, 
and  improvement  of  the  seed-cane.  But  the  major 
part  of  the  paper  is  devoted  to  a  popular  presentation 
of  the  improved  process  of  manufacture,  with  tables 
of  figures  to  show  the  practical  results  on  his  own 
plantation  and  on  others  where  experiments  had  been 
made.  He  gives  a  chemical  analysis  of  the  sugar-cane, 
inaccurate  in  the  view  of  more  recent  research  but  suf 
ficient  for  the  purpose,  and  explains  the  structure  of 
the  plant,  as  well  as  the  old  wasteful  methods  of  ex 
tracting  and  boiling  the  juice.  He  then  describes  the 
improved  methods.  There  were  two  rival  processes  at 
that  time,  each  with  its  advocates.  Both  applied  the 
principle  of  boiling  the  cane-juice  in  vacuum,  whereby 
a  much  greater  proportion  of  sugar  was  produced  in 
place  of  the  molasses.  They  differed  chiefly  in  certain 
technical  points  of  arrangement,  which  cannot  be  ex 
plained  without  the  use  of  technical  terms.  In  the 

1  De  Bow's  Review,  Vol.  II,  pp.  322-345,  November,  1846. 


LAW  AND  SUGAR  63 

apparatus  of  M.  Eillieux,  which  Benjamin  had  in 
stalled  at  "Bellechasse,"  the  juice  was  boiled  in  a 
series  of  "  vacuum  pans,"  always  kept  from  contact 
with  the  air  till  it  reached  the  point  of  granulation  in 
the  fourth  and  last  pan,  and  the  evaporated  steam 
from  one  pan  was  used  to  assist  in  boiling  the  syrup  in 
the  next.  In  that  of  De'rosne  and  Cail  a  part  of  the 
process  took  place  in  the  open  air,  the  syrup  being 
allowed  to  flow  over  a  series  of  pipes  heated  by  steam, 
a  portion  of  the  apparatus  known  as  a  "  double  effect," 
modifications  of  which  have  been  used  since.  The 
champion  of  the  Derosne  and  Cail  apparatus  was 
M.  Valcour  Aime.  In  both  systems  scientific  principles 
were  applied  to  the  problems  of  extracting  a  maximum 
of  juice  from  the  cane,  filtering  and  defecating  the 
juice  to  remove  impurities,  and  economizing  fuel  by 
making  use  of  steam  in  place  of  a  direct  flame  to  boil 
it.  Mr.  Benjamin's  argument  in  favor  of  the  supe 
riority  of  the  apparatus  employed  on  his  own  planta 
tion  is  sound  in  theory,  and  supported  by  a  good  array 
of  facts.  It  may  be  well  to  mention  here  that  subse 
quent  improvements  in  the  art  have  also  rather  justi 
fied  his  view,  though  both  of  the  rival  systems  have 
contributed  to  the  apparatus  now  used  in  modern 
sugar  refineries.  It  is  perhaps  needless  to  remark 
that,  while  mechanical  improvements  have  been  made, 
as  in  the  successful  construction  of  mills  with  far 
heavier  rollers  to  crush  the  cane,  the  greatest  ad 
vances  since  have  been  merely  developments  on  the 
scientific  side,  such  as  more  accurate  chemical  analysis 
of  sugar  and  cane,  the  application  of  the  principles  of 
polarization,  and  the  use  of  the  centrifugal  for  drying 
the  sugar  instead  of  the  primitive  method  of  allowing 


54  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

the  molasses  to  drip  from  the  wet  sugar  placed  in  bar 
rels  over  a  cistern. 

In  a  second  paper/  an  address  on  "Agriculture" 
intended  to  be  delivered  before  the  meeting  of  the 
Agricultural  and  Mechanics'  Institute  of  Louisiana, 
Mr.  Benjamin  discusses  several  phases  of  possible 
improvement  in  agricultural  methods.  He  tells  of 
some  new  things  seen  on  his  last  visit  to  France, 
among  others — a  dream  still  to  be  realized — a  steam 
plow  which  he  saw  tried  in  that  country.  But  he 
recurs  to  sugar  chemistry,  recording  the  recent  ad 
vances  made  in  France.  He  describes,  also,  an  appa 
ratus  since  successfully  introduced,  a  "  slicer  "  for 
cutting  and  slicing  the  hard  bark  of  the  cane  before  it 
goes  to  the  mill,  with  the  experiments  in  soaking  the 
crushed  cane  with  lime-water  and  recrushing  it,  all  of 
which  would,  it  was  believed,  increase  the  percent 
age  of  juice  extracted,  a  theory  since  fully  proven. 
And  with  pardonable  pride  he  quotes  from  the  recent 
report  of  Professor  E.  S.  McCulloch,  a  chemist  sent 
out  by  the  Federal  government  to  study  sugar -culture 
in  Louisiana  and  Cuba,  describing  the  efforts  of 
Messrs.  Benjamin  and  Packwood  to  make  chemically 
pure  sugar  direct  from  the  cane-juice,  without  the  slow 
process  of  the  " cooler"  and  subsequent  refining.  It 
would  be  tedious  to  give  an  account  of  the  experi 
mental  methods,  using  a  tank  with  a  perforated  bot 
tom  called  a  "tiger,"  by  which  Benjamin  and  Pack- 
wood  were  enabled  to  give  McCulloch  a  specimen  of 
sugar  found  to  be  chemically  pure:  "Its  crystal 
line  grain  and  snowy  whiteness  are  also  equal  to 
those  of  the  best  double  refined  sugar  of  our  northern 

1  January,  1848,  Vol.  V,  pp.  44-57. 


LAW  AND  SUGAE  55 

refineries.  To  these  two  enterprising  men  must, 
therefore,  be  awarded  the  merit  of  having  first  made 
directly  from  a  vegetable  juice,  sugar  of  absolute  chem 
ical  purity."  Mr.  Benjamin  gives  the  credit  for  the 
success  of  this  experiment  to  his  partner,  Mr.  Pack- 
wood,  under  whose  careful  supervision  all  of  the  prac 
tical  work  was  done. 

As  early  as  1846  the  State  Agricultural  Society  had 
awarded  the  first  prize  for  loaf  sugar  to  Benjamin  and 
Packwood.  But,  as  Mr.  Benjamin  himself  confesses  in 
the  article  just  reviewed,  the  attempt  to  make  pure 
sugar  in  the  "  tigers"  was  only  an  experimental  suc 
cess,  interesting  but  not  really  practical  on  a  large 
scale.  The  claim  made  on  the  basis  of  McCulloch's  re 
port,  however,  led  to  some  ill-feeling  at  the  time, 
whereby  Mr.  Benjamin  did  not  escape  caustic  censure, 
in  spite  of  his  express  statement  that  all  credit  for 
the  experiments  at  "Bellechasse"  was  due  to  Mr. 
Packwood.  I  refer  the  curious  in  such  matters  to 
Valcour  Aime's  article  in  De  Bow's  Review.1  We  are 
not  writing  the  history  of  sugar  in  Louisiana,  and  our 
interest  in  the  controversy  ends  here. 

The  last  of  the  De  Bow  articles 2  introduces  us  to  an 
instrument  whose  use  led  to  the  greatest  improvement 
in  the  art  of  sugar-refining.  It  is  a  description  of 
"  SoleiPs  Saccharometer,"  the  earliest  usable  in 
strument  applying  the  polarization  of  light  to  deter 
mine  the  percentage  of  sugar  in  a  given  amount  of 
j  nice.  Only  the  practical  sugar-maker  could  appreciate 
what  a  revolution  the  "polarizer"  has  effected,  and  so 
I  shall  not  attempt  to  show  its  application.  Mr. 

1  Vol.  V,  pp.  249,  289. 

2  Vol.  V.,  pp.  357-364,  April,  1848. 


56  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

Benjamin  gives  a  detailed  description  of  the  instrument, 
explains  the  optical  and  chemical  principles  involved, 
and  the  method  of  its  use  in  the  sugar-house,  with  the 
consequent  gain  to  the  intelligent  planter. 

It  is  not  very  surprising  that  a  trained  student  and 
scholar  of  broad  culture  and  keen  intellect  should  have 
taken  such  an  interest  and  achieved  such  results  in  the 
more  theoretical  departments  of  farming.  But  Mr. 
Benjamin  was  not  the  typical  gentleman  farmer,  proud 
of  his  cabbages  at  one  dollar  a  head.  Until  misfor 
tunes  beyond  human  foresight  to  avert  came  upon 
"  Bellechasse,"  it  was  a  successful  plantation,  though 
perhaps  no  small  share  of  the  credit  for  this  should 
go  to  Theodore  Packwood,  who  was  a  practical  man, 
and  who  took  charge  of  the  actual  work.  That 
Mr.  Benjamin's  theories  were  not  altogether  vi 
sionary,  one  is  at  least  led  to  surmise,  since  the 
machinery  installed  by  him  at  "  Bellechasse"  was  still 
serviceable  and  in  use  as  late  as  1895 ;  not  till  then 
was  it  deemed  necessary  to  remodel  the  sugar-house 
which  he  had  constructed  half  a  century  before. 
But  there  is  certainly  ground  for  the  belief  that,  with 
out  the  practical  knowledge  and  the  restraining  con 
servatism  of  his  partner,  he  would  have  been  tempted 
into  fruitless  and  costly  experiments  j  for  he  was  by  na 
ture  not  only  fond  of  new  things, — experimental  toys — 
but  also  prone  to  be  too  sanguine,  fascinated  by  vaguely 
magnificent  schemes  where  his  fervid  imagination  could 
revel,  in  consideration  of  the  immense  results,  without 
being  hampered  by  the  cold  facts  that  must  be  faced 
ere  those  results  could  be  made  realities.  One  of  the 
household  at  "  Bellechasse "  recalls  that  Mrs.  Pack- 
wood  used  to  say,  despairingly:  "There  goes 


LAW  AND  SUGAE  57 

Theodore  with  Mr.  Benjamin  !  I  never  see  them  rid 
ing  about  the  field  together  without  trembling  for  the 
consequences.  Mr.  Benjamin  can  talk  him  into  buy 
ing  any  new-fangled  pot  or  pan  he's  pleased  with  for 
the  moment,  and  then  Theodore  has  the  worry  of  try 
ing  to  make  the  thing  work."  And  the  same  witness 
remembers  several  expensive  and  useless  toys  of 
the  kind  Mrs.  Packwood  complains  of,  among  other 
things  a  domestic  ice  machine,  which  produced,  or  was 
supposed  to  produce,  ice  in  long  candles  when  you 
turned  the  crank.  In  spite  of  this  fondness  for  experi 
ment,  however,  and  whether  the  ice  machine  worked 
or  not,  "  Bellechasse  "  was  a  financial  success. 

Early  in  1847  Mr.  Benjamin  wrote  to  his  mother 
that  she,  his  widowed  sister,  Mrs.  Levy,  and  the  lat 
ter' s  young  daughter,  should  come  to  take  possession  of 
the  plantation  home  he  had  prepared  for  them ;  his 
wife  had  found  it  too  lonely.  To  the  youngest  member 
of  the  trio  it  was  all  a  delightful  surprise,  a  romance 
whose  charms  she  longed  to  taste. l  They  made  the 
long  trip  from  Beaufort  by  sea,  and  arrived  safely  in 
New  Orleans  one  bright  spring  morning.  The  next 
day  they  took  the  steamboat  down  to  "Bellechasse," 
of  which  Mr.  Benjamin  would  tell  them  nothing  till 
they  saw  it.  And  the  quaint  old  Creole  house  then  oc 
cupying  the  place — rooms  all  in  a  long  row,  galleries 
front  and  back,  walls  tinted  in  delicate  colors  and 
frescoed  with  the  queerest  scenes  of  beribboned  gon 
dolas  and  fantastic  shepherds, — the  lovely  garden, 
the  mighty  live-oaks,  certainly  did  charm  them. 
More  precious  to  them  and  to  him,  however,  was  the 
thought  that  now  at  last  there  was  a  home.  They 

1  Conversation  with  Mrs.  Popham. 


58  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

deemed  the  old  house  quite  good  enough,  but  he  had 
already  planned  the  larger  mansion  which  still  stands 
and  which  soon  replaced  the  smaller  and  less  comfort 
able  one. 

Mr.  Benjamin's  mother,  however,  did  not  long  sur 
vive,  dying  in  the  autumn  of  1847.  Then  Mrs.  Levy 
was  installed  as  mistress  of  the  new  house,  which  her 
devoted  brother  was  determined  to  make  as  pleasant  a 
home  as  loving  thought  could,  and  to  which  came 
other  members  of  the  family.  She  was  a  little  older 
than  himself,  and  had  always  been  looked  up  to  as  a 
sort  of  superior  being.  Indeed,  those  who  knew  her 
bear  witness  to  her  wonderful  intellect,  her  wit,  her 
charm  of  manner,  — in  all  things  like  her  brother,  and 
always  the  sharer  of  his  perplexities,  his  triumphs, 
his  troubles,  as  much  as  if  she  were  part  of  himself. 

Though  the  plantation  was  remote  from  the  city, 
they  were  not  cut  off  from  the  world.  Before  their 
coming,  Mr.  Benjamin,  recovering  the  use  of  his  eyes, 
had  partially  taken  up  his  practice  in  New  Orleans 
again,  and,  in  fact,  was  j  ust  at  this  time  coming  into 
wider  prominence.  In  1847  he  had  been  appointed 
counsel  to  the  California  Land  Commissioners,  on  be 
half  of  the  Federal  government.  In  this  position  his 
familiarity  with  French  and  Spanish,  and  with  the 
Spanish  system  of  law,  similar  to  that  of  Louisiana, 
gave  him  an  extraordinary  advantage.  His  services 
so  added  to  his  prestige  that  he  was  sought  and  re 
ceived  big  fees,  for  many  important  cases  involving 
California  lands ;  and  in  October,  1848,  he  was  ad 
mitted  to  practice  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States.  Whatever  the  charms  of  "Belle- 
chasse,"  it  was  manifest  that  destiny  would  not  let 


LAW  AND  SUGAB  59 

him  rest  a  sugar-planter.  He  did  not  live  on  the 
plantation,  therefore,  but  in  New  Orleans,  going  down 
to  it  every  week-end,  and  only  occasionally  indulging 
himself  in  a  longer  stay  there. 

Both  he  and  his  sister  delighted  in  entertaining,  and 
understood  the  art.  Almost  every  Saturday  Mrs.  Levy 
learned  to  look  for  a  boat-load  of  guests,  old  and 
young,  to  enliven  the  house  for  a  few  days  ;  and  some 
times  even  this  excellent  housekeeper  was  put  to  it  to 
provide  for  the  comfort  of  more  company  than  she  had 
counted  on  ;  and  though  "  J.  P.,"  as  he  was  affection 
ately  called,  generally  brought  with  him  a  generous 
lot  of  provisions,  fruit,  and  delicacies  from  New 
Orleans,  it  sometimes  necessitated  very  careful  manip 
ulation  of  the  available  " loaves  and  fishes"  to  feed 
the  hungry.  Among  those  who  came  so  frequently  as 
to  be  almost  a  member  of  the  household  was  M.  Auguste 
St.  Martin,  Mr.  Benjamin's  father-in-law,  a  most  de 
lightful  old  gentleman,  who  could  tell  the  young  folk 
thrilling  tales  of  the  horrors  of  the  great  West  Indian 
slave  insurrection.  Then  there  were  the  two  Hunting- 
ton  brothers,  with  whom  Mr.  Benjamin  kept  bachelors7 
quarters  on  Polymnia  Street  in  the  city.  And  fre 
quently,  for  quite  long  visits,  came  the  dried-up  little 
chemist,  Eillieux,  always  the  centre  of  an  admiring 
and  interested  group  of  planters  from  the  neighbor 
hood  as  he  explained  this  or  that  point  in  the  chemistry 
of  sugar  or  the  working  of  his  apparatus  ;  for  by  this 
time  had  begun  that  immense  expansion  of  the  sugar 
industry,  thanks  to  the  persistent  experiments  of  such 
pioneers  as  the  Fouchers  and  Valcour  Aime  and  now 
Benjamin,  and  thanks  also  to  the  substantial  tariff 
Congress  had  been  induced  to  put  upon  the  product. 


60  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

"  Bellechasse"  became  not  only  a  sort  of  social  focus 
for  the  planters  of  the  neighborhood,  but  the  scene  of 
a  symposium,  as  it  were,  on  sugar.  Who  would  have 
believed  that  scarce  fifty  years  had  passed  since  the 
time  when  it  had  been  firmly  believed  that  Louisiana 
cane  would  not  make  sugar  ! 

But  though  the  host  naturally  delighted  in  the 
companionship  of  such  men,  he  was  always  ready  to 
enter  into  the  pleasures  of  the  younger  people.  His 
niece,  then  just  entering  womanhood,  found  him  her 
most  sympathetic  confidant  in  any  girlish  troubles, 
and  many  a  situation,  seeming  tragic  to  her  young 
heart,  was  made  easy  after  a  stroll  about  the  garden 
with  the  great  lawyer,  who  was  to  her  like  one  of  her 
own  age,  only  more  wise  and  gentle  than  any  other. 
For  young  girls  he  had  a  great  affection.  When  they 
gathered  about  the  table  of  an  evening,  it  was  his 
favorite  custom  to  test  their  wits  in  the  sport  of  cap 
ping  verses — a  pastime  long  obsolete  one  suspects  only 
because  of  the  inferior  culture  in  literature,  for  in 
those  days  people  read  and  learned  by  heart  the 
classics  with  which  we  now  decorate  locked  book 
cases.  Mr.  Benjamin  had  a  wonderful  stock  of  verse 
in  his  memory,  and  would  pour  forth  scrap  after 
scrap,  with  a  challenge  to  them  to  place  the  quota 
tion.  Or  when  midnight  approached  in  stormy  season, 
and  the  nervous  tension  of  his  auditors  prepared  them 
for  such  experiences,  he  told  some  horror  tale,  work 
ing  carefully  up  to  the  awful  catastrophe  and  suddenly 
crying  out,  "Boo!"  Whereat  at  least  one  in  the 
group  (his  younger  sister,  afterward  Mrs.  Krutt- 
schnitt),  invariably  shrieked,  to  his  great  delight. 

Unforeseen  disasters,  however,  were  soon  to  end  the 


LAW  AND  SUGAR  61 

pleasant  days  at  "Bellechasse."  The  great  river  rose 
and  overflowed  its  banks.  Though  his  own  front 
levees  held,  there  were  crevasses  on  neighboring  places 
that  let  in  the  backwater.  Up  and  up  it  crept,  into 
the  yard,  to  the  very  steps  of  the  house,  the  yard  be 
ing  filled  with  cattle  seeking  the  high  ground,  and  even 
deer  driven  from  the  swamps  in  this  emergency  for 
safety  near  man.  The  growing  crop  was  destroyed, 
for  cane  perishes  quickly  under  water  ;  even  the  seed- 
cane  was  gone.  And  then  a  friend,  for  whom  Mr. 
Benjamin  had  endorsed  a  note  of  $60,000,  failed  to 
meet  his  obligations,  and  the  endorser  was  called  upon 
to  pay.  He  had  to  give  up  the  expensive  home  at 
"Bellechasse,"  and  resume  with  all  his  old  energy  his 
practice  in  New  Orleans.  The  family,  removing  for  a 
short  time  to  another  plantation  above  the  city,  then 
went  to  live  in  a  house  he  bought  for  them,  at  the 
corner  of  Nashville  and  Naiades  (now  St.  Charles) 
Avenues,  where  they  were  to  remain  till  expelled  by 
the  Federal  troops.  The  locality  was  then  too  remote 
from  the  city  for  him  to  live  with  them,  though  there 
was  a  railway  connecting  the  suburb  of  Carrollton 
with  what  seemed  the  distant  city,  now  grown  miles 
beyond  this  point.  He  continued  to  reside  with  the 
Huntingtons,  on  Polymnia  Street,  but  dined  almost 
every  day  with  his  family,  sometimes  notifying  Mrs. 
Levy  that  he  expected  to  bring  guests,  or  longed  for 
one  of  his  favorite  delicacies.  i  i  Have  broiled  chickens 
for  dinner, "  he  would  say,  "also  plenty  of  butter  on 
'em  ;  you  know  how  I  like  it  done." 

So  ends  the  plantation  episode  of  this  varied  career, 
in  disappointment  and  financial  disaster,  through  no 
fault  of  his  own.  But  there  was  no  check  apparent  to 


62  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

the  world  in  the  triumphant  career.  Few  even  of  his 
intimate  friends  knew  the  extent  of  the  loss  ;  and  with 
undiniinished  zeal  and  hopefulness  he  set  about  re 
building  the  shattered  fortune. 

Before  we  turn  to  take  up  other  threads  of  the  life, 
it  may  be  well  to  note  some  of  the  lessons  of  this  plan 
tation  experience.  As  owner  of  "  Bellechasse,"  he  had 
also  become  a  slaveholder,  and  had  thus  had  practical 
knowledge  of  the  slave  system.  From  this  he  could 
judge  how  false  were  the  lurid  pictures  of  Louisiana 
plantations  drawn  by  the  Northern  radicals.  Some 
few  of  his  slaves  were  still  living  a  year  or  two  since, 
and  would  tell  visitors  all  sorts  of  tales  of  the  master 
of  long  ago  ; — none  but  kindly  memories,  and  romantic 
legends  of  the  days  of  glory  on  the  old  place,  such 
as  the  setting  up  of  the  plantation  bell,  still  there, 
into  whose  molten  metal  Mr.  Benjamin  is  said  to  have 
cast  two  hundred  silver  dollars  to  give  it  sweet  tone. 
Slavery  in  practice,  then,  was  familiar  to  him,  and 
seemed  no  wrong,  certainly  far  from  the  thing  it  was 
pictured  to  be.  Moreover,  in  the  actual  business  of 
planting,  it  was  inevitable  that  the  wider  aspects  of 
agriculture  in  the  South  should  be  revealed  to  his 
trained  mind.  His  subsequent  views  of  the  economics 
of  the  slavery  question  would  take  their  coloring  from 
his  own  experience,  an  experience  which  enlisted  his 
head  as  well  as  his  heart  on  the  side  of  the  planter  to 
whom  emancipation  conveyed  the  threat,  almost  the 
certainty,  of  financial  ruin  and  the  gravest  social 
perils.  And  in  the  lull  of  continuous  hammering  away 
at  the  law,  in  the  greater  leisure,  brief  though  it  was, 
of  plantation  life,  his  mind  was  left  free  for  specula- 


LAW  AND  SUGAR  63 

tions  other  than  legal  or  forensic.  It  is  perhaps  no 
mere  barren  coincidence  that  just  at  this  time  he  en 
gaged  in  politics,  as  if  suddenly  aware  of  the  importance 
of  things  that  had  not  interested  him  before. 


CHAPTER  III 

POLITICS  AND  CONSTITUTION  MAKING 

INTELLIGENT  English  observers,  such  as  Mr.  Bryce, 
have  noted  that  a  very  large  proportion  of  American 
public  men  are  lawyers,  at  least  in  training  if  not  in 
practice.  This  was  more  true  in  the  old  South,  per 
haps,  than  it  is  to-day ;  scores  of  the  notable  men  of 
that  by-gone  society  are  betrayed  by  the  title  of  Judge, 
while  even  the  Generals  and  Colonels  (as  abundant  then 
as  now)  will  frequently  be  found  to  be  merely  lawyer- 
politicians  masquerading  in  those  most  unexceptionable 
and  useful  martial  titles.  Most  politicians,  in  fact, 
were  lawyers,  and  it  might  be  said  that  most  lawyers 
were  also  politicians.  It  is  therefore  not  surprising  to 
discover  Mr.  Benjamin  very  early  seduced  from  law 
into  politics. 

Before  the  first  decade  of  his  life  in  New  Orleans  had 
passed,  we  find  him  taking  a  share  in  local  politics, 
serving  on  city  or  parish  executive  committees,  and 
occasionally  making  a  speech  that  the  newspapers  con 
sider  of  sufficient  moment  to  mention,  but  not  at  first 
himself  a  candidate.  In  order  to  understand  many  of 
the  points  that  will  arise  in  our  discussion  of  Mr. 
Benjamin  in  public  life,  it  will  be  necessary  briefly 
to  explain  some  of  the  peculiar  features  of  politics  in 
Louisiana  in  the  forties. 

In  the  first  place,  quite  irrespective  of  party,  the 
population  of  Louisiana,  and  of  New  Orleans  in  par 
ticular,  was  divided  by  differences  of  language  and 


POLITICS  AND  CONSTITUTION  MAKING    65 

nationality  that,  on  rare  occasions,  might  cause  almost 
as  much  mutual  distrust  as  if  the  one  party  or  the 
other  had  been  actually  hostile  foreigners.  There 
were  two  languages,  recognized  not  merely  under  the 
law,  by  the  printing  of  the  constitution  in  French  and 
English,  and  by  similar  dual  publication  of  all  public 
documents,  but  by  custom  as  well,  in  the  daily  prac 
tice  of  those  who  still  formed  a  considerable  proportion 
of  the  total  white  population  of  the  state.  The  French, 
more  numerous,  though  not  in  the  majority  in  the 
southern  portion  of  Louisiana,  and  the  English,  settling 
in  constantly  increasing  numbers  in  the  Felicianas,  in 
the  rich  alluvial  parishes  from  Bed  Eiver  to  the 
Arkansas  line,  and  in  the  hilly  northwestern  parishes, 
might  oppose  each  other  on  some  points  quite  without 
regard  to  supposed  party  affiliations.  The  French 
Creole  might  be  a  Democrat,  or  he  might  be  a  Whig, 
but  in  the  eyes  of  his  English  neighbor  he  was  always 
a  Frenchman,  constitutionally  opposed  to  development 
and  progress. 

It  should  be  said,  injustice,  that  such  narrow  preju 
dice  very  rarely  led  to  serious  conflict,  and  that  or 
dinarily  the  only  distinctions  of  moment  in  politics 
were  those  between  the  Whigs  and  the  Democrats.  Of 
the  still  vigorous  party  inspired  by  Webster  and  Clay, 
Mr.  Benjamin  was  from  the  first  a  warm  supporter, 
and  no  small  share  of  the  flashes  of  success  that  came 
to  it  in  the  last  decade  of  its  existence  in  Louisiana 
is  attributable  to  his  energy  and  political  sagacity. 
This  was  a  time  of  desperate  struggle  for  the  Whigs, 
threatened  at  first  by  defeat  at  the  hands  of  the  new 
and  popular  Democracy  with  its  Jacksonian  cult ;  then 
menaced  by  insidious  Native  American  attacks,  and 


66  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

at  last  suddenly  and  forever  extinguished  in  the  storm 
clouds  of  the  conflict  whose  coming  there  was  no  longer 
a  Webster  or  a  Clay  to  hinder.  And  in  the  fierce 
party  fights  that  I  shall  have  to  record,  not  the  most 
spotless  gentleman  could  hope  to  escape  with  reputa 
tion  unassailed.  Mr.  Benjamin,  being  often  in  the  fore 
front  of  his  party  as  campaign  manager  or  as  candi 
date,  came  in  for  an  extra  share  of  scurrilous  abuse 
from  opposition  newspapers  at  a  time  when  American 
journalism  was  incredibly  coarse  and  brutal. 

Louisiana  had  been  rather  steady  as  a  Whig  state, 
having  a  conservative  electorate  under  the  rather  re 
strictive  suffrage  qualifications  of  the  state  constitution 
of  1812.  But  about  1840  the  waves  of  Democracy  were 
rising  steadily,  and  nothing  but  efforts  of  an  extra 
ordinary  vigor  could  long  secure  Whig  victories  in 
Louisiana.  In  the  local  elections  in  New  Orleans  in 
April,  1842,  the  Whigs  were  defeated,  and  hence  re 
doubled  their  exertions  to  win  at  least  some  offices  in 
the  state  campaign,  which  then  took  place  in  July. 
For  the  first  time,  Mr.  Benjamin  threw  himself  into 
the  contest  with  that  energy  which  had  already  won 
signal  triumphs  in  his  profession.  He  was  a  candidate 
for  the  lower  house  of  the  General  Assembly,  and  his 
office  on  Exchange  Place  was  frequently  the  meeting- 
place,  and,  on  election  day,  the  headquarters  of  the 
Whig  executive  committee.1 

Elections  in  New  Orleans  in  those  days  were  always 
characterized  by  fraud,  attempted  or  achieved,  and 
not  infrequently  by  violence  and  bloodshed.  Though 
the  suffrage  was  restricted  by  property  and  other 
qualifications,  the  professional  voter  was  far  more  in 

1  See  New  Orleans  Bee.  April  4,  20 ;  June  4,  25 ;  July  1,  4,  5. 


POLITICS  AND  CONSTITUTION  MAKING    67 

evidence  and  far  more  dangerous  than  now ;  and  as 
there  was  no  system  of  registration, — only  the  most 
cumbrous  and  uncertain  method  of  deciding,  at  the 
very  polls,  whether  or  not  the  voter  presenting  himself 
was  properly  qualified, — "  repeating  "  became  so  easy 
as  to  cease  to  be  a  crime  in  the  eyes  of  many,  and  a  de 
termined  and  reckless  minority  could,  by  precipitating 
contests  at  the  polls,  or  by  actual  violence,  either  re 
tard  the  election  or  actually  drive  away  hostile  votes. 
The  more  candid  members  of  both  parties  admitted 
and  deplored  these  irregularities  ;  but  naturally  the 
defeated  faction,  of  whatever  party,  was  loud  in  charges 
of  fraud  on  the  part  of  the  victors. 

In  this  particular  election  the  Whigs  were,  in  the 
main,  successful,  and  the  Democratic  papers,  such  as 
the  Jeffersoniau  and  the  Courier,  made  allegations  of 
extraordinary  fraud  in  New  Orleans,  naming  Benjamin 
as  the  person  chiefly  responsible.  Under  the  prop 
erty  qualification  clause  of  the  constitution,  it  had  been 
held  that  ownership  of  a  carriage  or  cab,  proved  by 
payment  of  a  license  tax,  was  sufficient  to  qualify  a 
voter.  The  Democratic  papers  attributed  the  sugges 
tion  of  this  idea  to  the  acute  lawyer  who  had  taken  so 
conspicuous  a  part  in  Whig  councils.  They  stated, 
moreover,  that  licenses  had  been  issued  on  cabs  which 
had  no  existence  except  in  the  necessity  for  Whig 
votes,  and  that  hundreds  of  votes  had  been  cast  by 
this  ingenious  trick,  since  the  inspectors  at  the  polls 
had  no  time  or  opportunity  to  examine  into  the  real 
existence  of  the  cabs,  but  must  accept  the  license  re 
ceipt  as  evidence  of  bona  fide  ownership. 

There  were  frauds,  no  doubt,  in  the  election ;  but 
there  is  nothing  but  partisan  accusation  based  on  ex- 


68  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

aggerated  suspiciousuess  to  show  either  that  the  num 
ber  of  fraudulent  votes  was  very  considerable,  or  that 
Mr.  Benjamin  had  anything  whatever  to  do  with  the 
"  cab  votes."  l  Following  a  rule  almost  inviolate  with 
him,  he  made  no  public  denial  of  the  newspaper 
calumnies,  though  it  must  have  been  exasperating  to 
have  this  same  charge  raked  up  and  vociferously  urged 
at  every  election  in  which  his  name  came  before  the 
people— in  1844,  in  1848,  in  1852,  in  1858. 

With  or  without  "cab  votes,"  Mr.  Benjamin  was 
elected  to  the  legislature, 2  and  served  in  the  last  ses 
sions  held  under  the  old  constitution  of  the  state.  As 
a  legislator  he  showed  himself  businesslike  and  re 
sourceful,  but  no  measure  of  importance  was  considered 
during  his  term  ;  for  the  nation  was  just  catching  its 
breath  between  the  great  financial  panics  that  marked 
the  Jacksouian  era,  and  Louisiana  was  preparing  to 
call  a  convention  to  give  a  constitution  that  would,  by 
some  yet  undiscovered  method,  prevent  wild-cat  banks 
and  hydrocephalous  trusts  without  throttling  finance 
and  commerce,  and  that  would  tie  up  the  General  As 
sembly  in  knots  of  limitations  which  might  prevent  it 
from  robbing  the  people  and  yet  leave  it  freedom  of 
action  in  case  it  should  by  any  chance  prove  honest 
and  capable.  With  this  increasing  distrust  of  the  de 
mocracy  for  its  own  chosen  representatives,  Benjamin 
was  then  heartily  in  sympathy.  He  approved  of  the 
convention  which  was  to  work  such  marvels  for  Louisi 
ana,  and  was  put  forward  as  a  candidate  for  member 
ship  in  it  in  the  spring  of  1844. 

1  Cf.  the  New  Orleans  Bee,  July  9 ;  Jeffersonian,  July  6,  1842 ; 
Courier,  July  3,  5,  6,  and  Aug.  3-9,  1844,  etc. 

2  New  Orleans  Bee,  July  5,  1842. 


POLITICS  AND  CONSTITUTION  MAKING    69 

In  this  election  one  hears  the  first  suggestions, — 
really  quite  without  serious  foundation — that  Benja 
min  was  an  adherent  of  the  American  or  Know  Nothing 
party.  Since  the  most  vital  of  the  ill-considered  prin 
ciples  of  that  mushroom  party  were  open  hostility  to 
citizens  of  foreign  birth  and  scarce  concealed  hostility 
to  Catholics,  and  since  Benjamin  was  himself  foreign 
born,  his  wife  a  Catholic,  and  he  himself  absolutely 
tolerant  of  the  religious  as  of  the  political  opinions  of 
others,  it  would  seem  that  the  mere  suggestion  of  his 
being  a  Know  Nothing  would  have  been  sufficiently 
absurd  to  refute  itself.  But,  strange  to  say,  there  were 
facts  to  lend  color  to  the  charge. 

By  1844  Mr.  Benjamin  had  become  interested  not 
only  in  other  matters  than  law,  such  as  the  cultiva 
tion  of  sugar  and  the  life  of  a  planter,  but  his  view  of 
political  questions  had  broadened  till  he  was  capable 
of  foreseeing  from  what  quarter  danger  threatened  not 
Louisiana  only  but  the  whole  South,  with  its  entire 
social  and  agricultural  system  dependent  on  slavery. 
He  was  already,  as  we  shall  see  from  a  significant 
speech  in  the  convention,  making  plans  for  the  de 
fense  of  Louisiana.  In  what  he  says  there,  and  in  the 
imperfectly  reported  fragments  of  political  speeches 
during  the  preceding  campaign,  it  is  made  very  clear 
that  he  considered  unrestricted  naturalization l  of  im 
migrants  into  the  state,  whether  "  foreign  born'7  or 
migrating  from  the  Northern  states,  a  source  of  danger 
to  the  community.  In  so  far  his  opinions  seemed  to 
coincide  with  those  of  the  American  party. 

1  Here  and  in  a  following  chapter  I  use  the  term  "  naturaliza 
tion,"  meaning  acquisition  of  the  suffrage  in  the  state,  because  it  is 
so  used  by  the  contemporary  papers ;  naturalization,  strictly  speak 
ing,  is  controlled  by  the  Federal  government. 


70  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

But  Benjamin  was  too  intelligent  and  too  broad- 
minded  to  become  an  adherent  of  such  a  party.  At 
first  he  was  favorably  impressed  by  the  strict  natural 
ization  requirements  proposed  by  them,  and  expressed 
his  approval  in  such  fashion  as  to  compromise  himself 
to  some  extent.  But  he  soon  discovered  that  this  or 
ganization,  with  a  no  more  definite  policy  than  the  ex 
clusion  of  foreigners  from  citizenship  and  office,  and 
proposing  to  introduce  into  democratic  American  poli 
tics  the  methods  of  the  Carbonari,  the  Mafia,  or  other 
Italian  secret  society,  was  no  fit  guardian  of  demo 
cratic  privileges. 

Throughout  the  campaign  which,  for  reasons  to  be  ex 
plained  presently,  was  a  long  one,  Benjamin  and  his  col 
league,  O.  M.  Conrad,  were  frequently  assailed  as  Know 
Nothings  by  the  Democratic  papers.  Part  of  this,  it  is 
true,  was  merely  for  political  effect ;  without  regard  to 
its  veracity,  a  Democratic  paper  of  1844  would  make 
any  assertion  that  it  thought  likely  to  help  its  faction, 
even  if  the  lie  were  detected — after  election.  The  Lou 
isiana  Courier -,  in  particular,  makes  repeated  attacks  on 
this  score  ;  and  they  are,  so  to  speak,  double-barreled, 
the  paper  being  published  half  in  French  and  half  in 
English.  It  boldly  asserts,  in  its  two  tongues,  that 
Benjamin  and  Conrad  are1  "  opposed  to  the  Catholic 
religion  because  they  belong  to  and  act  with  a  party 
that  avows  its  opposition  to  that  mode  of  faith.  Mr. 
Conrad,  we  believe,  was  brought  up  in  the  Protestant 
church.  We  know  nothing  of  Mr.  Benjamin's  relig 
ion.'7  Nay,  it  appears  from  the  Courier  that  these  two 
gentlemen  were  notorious  for  sullying  l  L  the  purity  of  the 
ballot  box,"  and,  most  horrible  of  all,  both  are  guilty 

Courier,  Nov.  19,  20,  23,  1844. 


POLITICS  AND  CONSTITUTION  MAKING    71 

of  lese  majeste,  having  dared  to  maintain  that  they 
thought  Judge  Hall  was  perfectly  right  in  imposing  a 
fine  on  General  Andrew  Jackson  for  some  of  his  high 
handed  proceedings  in  New  Orleans !  All  of  which 
rather  moves  us  to  smile,  and  to  doubt,  especially 
when  we  discover  that  this  diligent  champion  of 
the  purity  of  the  ballot  has  next  to  nothing  to  say  of 
the  notorious  Plaquemines  election,  in  which  Demo 
cratic  voters  by  hundreds  were  carried  from  New 
Orleans  to  the  voting  place  in  that  parish. 

Though  supported  by  one  of  the  Know  Nothing 
papers,  Benjamin  continued  to  act  with  the  Whigs. 
In  December,  1844,  he  and  many  other  leading  citi 
zens  of  New  Orleans  signed  a  public  call  for  the  forma 
tion  of  a  ll  Louisiana  American  party.771  This  was 
not  really  a  Know  Nothing  organization  j  its  pur 
poses  were  reform,  especially  reform  of  the  ballot,  and 
reform  of  the  naturalization  laws.  But  its  existence, 
as  an  independent  party,  was  precarious,  and  Benja 
min's  connection  with  it  was  certainly  little  more  than 
the  signing  of  the  call  in  the  hope  of  bettering  local 
political  conditions.  His  loyalty  as  a  Whig  was  never 
again  impeached  until  the  party  ceased  to  have  any 
real  existence. 

This  campaign,  in  which  Benjamin  manifested  in 
terest  in  matters  other  than  local,  may  be  said  to  be 
the  formal  beginning  of  a  political  career  henceforth 
without  interruption.  It  may  be  of  value,  therefore, 
to  note  his  opinions  at  this  important  period. 
Fortunately,  an  accidental  indisposition  gives  us  a 
better  chance  to  get  an  idea  of  these  views.  He  was 

1  See  the  Tropic,  Dec.  24 ;  the  call  is  signed  by  Glendy  Burke, 
W.  C.  C.  Claiborne,  W.  A.  Violett,  etc.,  etc.  Cf.  Tropic,  Nov.  20. 


72  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

announced  to  address  a  Whig  meeting  in  New  Orleans 
on  June  20th.  If  he  had  spoken,  the  Whig  papers 
would  have  garbled  and  praised  the  ' '  most  eloquent 
and  argumentative  effort  it  has  been  our  pleasure  to 
hear  in  New  Orleans'7  ;  but  he  was  unable  to  speak, 
and  consequently  sent  a  written  statement  of  his  views 
to  the  papers  a  few  days  later. l 

We  find  that  he  believes,  in  contrast  to  the  extreme 
Democrats,  that  the  powers  of  the  constitutional  con 
vention  for  which  he  is  a  candidate  are  not  limited,  but 
unrestricted,  the  members  being  not  mere  legislative 
representatives:  "If  there  be  a  feature  of  our  re 
publican  institutions  to  which  we  may  point  with 
honor  and  pride,  it  is  peculiarly  this, — that  with  us 
changes  of  government  are  peaceful  revolutions,  and 
not  the  fruit  of  civil  war  or  dreadful  strife  ;  and  that  it 
is  at  all  times  within  the  power  of  a  well  ascertained 
majority  of  the  people  to  effect  such  changes  without 
danger  and  without  commotion.  As  some  honest 
doubts  are,  however,  entertained  on  this  subject,  I 
should  deem  it  advisable  .  .  .  that  the  labors  of 
the  convention  should  not  take  effect  till  ratified  by 
the  people.77  He  is  in  favor  of  reducing  the  suffrage 
qualifications,  being  more  democratic  in  this  than  on 
any  other  point ;  but  he  advocates  something  that  was 
regarded  as  tyrannous  and  unrepublican  in  those  days  : 
"a  registry  system  to  prevent  the  fraudulent  usurpa 
tion  of  the  electoral  franchise  by  those  [not]  really  en 
titled  to  it."  He  shares  the  prevailing  fear  of  wild-cat 
banks,  and  would  restrict  the  powers  of  the  legislature 
in  regard  to  the  formation  of  certain  kinds  of  corpora 
tions.  And  the  following  views  on  state  banks  are 

1  See  Tropic,  June  25,  1844. 


POLITICS  AND  CONSTITUTION  MAKING    73 

decidedly  more  conservative  than  those  prevailing  a 
generation  before  the  Federal  government  had  es 
tablished  its  system  of  national  banks.  "  It  is  too  late 
at  the  present  day  to  question  the  right  of  the  states  to 
charter  banks,  although  I  must  confess  that  the  strong 
bearing  of  my  mind  has  always  been  against  the  con 
stitutionality  of  the  exercise  of  such  power  by  the 
states.  I  have  found  it  very  difficult  to  reconcile  the 
idea  of  the  coexistence  of  such  a  power  with  those  con 
fided  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  to  the 
general  government  of  coining  money,  regulating  its 
value,  and  regulating  commerce,  and  with  the  prohi 
bitions  by  which  the  states  are  prevented  from  coining 
money,  emitting  bills  of  credit,  or  making  anything 
but  gold  and  silver  coin  a  tender  in  payment  of  debt. 
.  .  .  I  shall  vote,  if  elected,  to  prohibit  the  legis 
lature  from  confiding  to  any  body  of  individuals  the 
power  of  doing  banking  business  as  corporators  unless 
such  corporators  be  individually  liable  for  the  debts 
of  the  corporation  to  the  whole  extent  of  their  for 
tunes." 

His  program  for  the  judiciary  is  also  extremely  con 
servative.  He  advocates  a  judiciary  appointed  by  the 
governor  and  for  good  behavior,  perhaps  to  be  retired 
after  reaching  the  age  of  sixty  ;  but  he  notes  that  such 
a  provision  would  have  deprived  New  York  of  the  best 
services  of  Chancellor  Kent,  and  the  Federal  govern 
ment  of  the  best  services  of  Marshall,  a  difficulty  which 
might  be  avoided  by  sanctioning  reappointment  for 
short  terms  of  judges  who  would  otherwise  be  retired  in 
the  plenitude  of  their  powers. 

In  all  this  it  will  be  noted  that  there  is  little  tendency 
to  Democratic  views,  and  no  trace  whatever  of  Know 


74  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

Nothingism,  or,  as  it  was  more  irreverently  called, 
' '  Sammy  ism. ' ' 

The  election  resulted  in  the  choice  of  Conrad  and 
Benjamin  to  represent  New  Orleans  in  the  convention. 
As  usual,  there  were  complaints  of  fraud  on  both  sides  ; 
but  in  this  case  Whigs  and  Democrats  vied  with  each 
other  in  condemning  the  disfranchisement,  by  election 
inspectors,  of  a  considerable  body  of  voters  who  held 
naturalization  papers  said  to  have  been  irregularly 
issued  by  a  judge  who  was  impeached  and  convicted 
about  this  time.  But  not  till  long  after  the  election  do 
we  hear  of  any  accusation  against  Mr.  Benjamin,  or  any 
hint  that  his  right  to  a  seat  in  the  convention  was  likely 
to  be  disputed. 

The  convention  met  on  the  appointed  day,  Monday, 
August  5,  1844,  at  the  little  town  of  Jackson.  This 
was  a  mere  village,  with  no  sufficient  accommodations 
for  the  delegates,  with  no  watchful  daily  press  (except 
one  poor  little  sheet  that  eked  out  a  sort  of  parasitic 
existence  upon  the  official  printing),  and  peculiarly  in 
accessible  even  now,  sixty  years  later,  being  situated 
about  fifteen  miles  from  the  river  which  was  at  thai 
time  the  great  artery  of  communication.  The  selection 
of  such  a  place,  suggestively  named  Jackson,  repre 
sented  a  victory  of  the  Democrats  in  the  legislature 
which  had  called  the  convention.  With  all  of  his 
might,  Benjamin,  aided  by  the  members  from  New 
Orleans,  had  fought  against  attempting  to  manufacture 
a  constitution  in  a  corner,  and  at  a  season  when  the 
state  was  liable  not  infrequently  to  devastating 
epidemics  of  yellow  fever  ;  but  the  Democrats,  and  in 
deed  most  of  the  members  from  the  rural  constituen 
cies,  had,  and  still  have,  the  most  unreasoning  and  un- 


POLITICS  AND  CONSTITUTION  MAKING    75 

controllable  jealousy  and  fear  of  New  Orleans.  When 
the  convention  met,  however,  and  began  to  organize,  it 
was  manifest  that,  although  the  Democrats  elected 
their  candidate  for  presiding  officer,  the  Whig  element 
was  stronger. 

At  the  first  informal  roll-call,  Benjamin  and  Emile 
La  Sere,  a  Democrat,  responded  for  New  Orleans,  and 
both  were  allowed  seats.  Mr.  Conrad,  Benjamin' s  duly 
elected  Whig  colleague,  did  not  appear  in  the  conven 
tion  for  several  days,  but  his  name  was  registered  by  a 
friend  before  his  arrival.  It  was  evident  that  the  seats 
held  by  Benjamin  and  Conrad  were  to  be  contested  by 
the  Democrats  ;  but  so  little  heed  was  paid  to  the  pos 
sibility  of  a  dispute  that,  before  the  Committee  on  Elec 
tions  brought  in  its  report  on  the  credentials  of 
members,  Benjamin  was  appointed  to  the  Committees 
on  Contingent  Expenses,  on  the  Third  Article  of  the 
Constitution  (Executive  Department),  and  on  the  Bill 
of  Rights  (Ninth  Article),  Mr.  Conrad  also  serving  on 
the  last  named.  That  same  day,  however  (August 
10th),  the  president,  Joseph  Walker,  submitted  to  the 
convention  "  letters  from  Emile  La  Sere  and  J.  B. 
Plauche,  claiming  to  be  entitled  to  seats  in  the  conven 
tion,  as  having  been  duly  elected  from  the  Parish  of 
Orleans."  The  letters  were  referred  to  the  Committee 
on  Elections. 

Before  this  committee  there  was  a  vigorous  fight, 
echoes  of  which  reach  us  through  the  debates  of  the 
convention.  Neither  side  won  a  decisive  triumph,  but 
the  strategic  victory  was  on  the  side  of  Benjamin  and 
Conrad,  who  continued  to  occupy  their  seats  and  act 
as  members  of  the  body.  The  committee,  not  being 
able  to  settle  the  question,  reported  the  contest  back 


76  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

to  the  convention.  It  appeared  that  the  Whig  candi 
dates  had  been  chosen  by  a  fair  majority  on  the  face 
of  the  returns,  but  the  contestants  declared  there  had 
been  serious  irregularities  in  the  election,  and  sub 
mitted  proof  of  their  allegations.  The  most  impor 
tant  piece  of  evidence  was  from  the  parish  Judge, 
Charles  Maurian  (a  political  opponent  of  Benjamin  and 
Conrad),  whose  duty  it  was  to  make  the  election  re 
turns,  and  who  had  done  so,  adding  marginal  notes  on 
the  very  documents  themselves  to  show  that,  in  his 
opinion,  the  returns  from  certain  wards  should  be 
thrown  out  because  only  one  inspector  had  signed 
them.  With  these  wards  eliminated,  the  Democratic 
candidates  would  have  been  elected  by  a  small  margin. 
Benjamin,  in  answer  to  this,  very  properly  contended 
that  he  and  Conrad  had  a  right  to  have  evidence  too, 
since  the  committee  had  undertaken  to  go  behind  the 
returns  ;  and  he  now  applied  to  it  for  process  to  be 
directed  to  the  city  of  New  Orleans  to  take  testi 
mony  to  sustain  his  allegations  and  to  rebut  those  of 
the  contestants. 

In  the  convention  this  contest  was  to  occupy  the 
whole  of  the  session  at  Jackson.  Mr.  Conrad  spoke  for 
hours,  and  repeatedly,  on  the  subject,  while  General 
Solomon  Downs  and  other  Democratic  leaders  replied 
at  still  greater  length.  Benjamin  spoke,  also,  though 
not  so  much  ;  and  there  is  nothing  in  the  speeches  of 
his  opponents  to  disturb  our  conviction  that  he  was  in 
the  right  and  duly  elected.  The  difficulty  seemed  to  be 
no  nearer  settlement  than  at  the  beginning,  when,  on 
August  21st,  the  convention  having  already  agreed  to 
adjourn  to  meet  again  in  New  Orleans  on  the  second 
Tuesday  in  January,  1845,  Benjamin  and  Conrad  stated 


POLITICS  AND  CONSTITUTION  MAKING    77 

that  they  would,  just  before  adjournment,  resign  their 
seats  and  stand  for  reelection,  if  their  opponents 
would  abide  by  this  decision.  La  Sere  and  Plauche 
agreed,  the  new  election  was  held  on  November  25th, 
and  the  Whigs  were  again  elected,  by  a  much  larger 
majority.1 

Very  little  was  attempted  or  accomplished  in  the 
three  weeks  that  the  convention  sat  in  Jackson.  The 
members  were  all  too  busy  in  the  trial  of  strength  be 
tween  the  Whigs  and  the  Democrats  on  the  seating  of 
Benjamin  and  Conrad,  and  on  the  adjournment  of  the 
convention  to  New  Orleans.  The  "  little  member 
from  Orleans,"  with  his  untiring  energy,  his  affable 
manners,  and  his  tactful  readiness  to  meet  the  views 
of  others  half-way  in  order  to  gain  his  object,  was 
credited  with  having  a  good  deal  to  do  with  the 
decision  on  the  latter  point.  The  Democratic  minority 
presented  a  protest  against  the  adjournment  to  New 
Orleans,  signed  by  twenty-nine  members,  which  is  so 
typical  of  the  " party  thunder"  of  two  generations 
ago  that  I  must  quote  a  part  of  it ;  the  contrast  be 
tween  this,  which  smacks  of  Solomon  W.  Downs,  and 
Benjamin's  style  should  be  noted.  When  the  con 
vention  met  in  Jackson,  say  the  Democrats,  "all  was 
bright  and  cheering  as  in  the  morning  of  time  ;  party 
spirit  recoiled  to  its  bed  ;  the  passions  of  men  were 
soothed,  from  the  happy  reflection  that  a  glorious  era 
had  come  in  Louisiana ;  the  demon  of  discord  aroused 
not  from  his  lair,  but  peace  prevailed  universally  and 
without  interruption.  .  .  .  But  the  evil  day  came, 

1  For  this  contest,  see  Debates  of  Convention,  1844-1845,  passim  ; 
and  newspapers,  especially  Tronic.  Sept.  30,  Nov.  14.  and  Courier 
Nov.  19-26,  1844. 


78  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

and  with  it  a  postponement  of  the  labors  enjoined  upon 
the  convention.  .  .  .  The  fiat  has  gone  forth,  re 
gardless  of  reason  and  the  demands  of  the  people. 
No  epidemic  darts  from  the  noonday  beams  or  hangs 
upon  the  curtain  of  night  to  alarm  the  stranger  or  dis 
compose  the  citizen ;  no  foreign  enemy  is  upon  our 
borders  to  lay  waste  our  fields  and  eat  our  substance  ; 
and  no  internal  commotion,  political  or  religious,  dis 
turbs  the  peaceful  quietude  of  the  country  in  which 
we  are  called  to  deliberate  ;  but  notwithstanding  this 
favorable  state  of  things  for  the  accomplishment  of 
the  grandest  object  ever  assigned  to  man,  the  millennial 
day  of  Louisiana  is  still  left  distant  in  the  womb  of 
time."  No  one  would  have  taken  more  pleasure  than 
the  fun-loving  Benjamin  in  remarking  sotto  voce  to 
General  Downs  "that  it  was  still  there." 

On  the  reassembling  of  the  convention1  in  New 
Orleans,  it  became  immediately  apparent  that,  though 
a  temporary  combination  of  votes  had  caused  its  re 
moval  from  Jackson,  the  jealousy  of  the  country 
members  toward  the  city  was  very  active,  and  would 
occasion  the  most  violent  conflicts.  Benjamin  had  not 
been  elected  as  the  head  of  the  city  delegation  ;  such 
a  position  might  rather  have  been  claimed  by  the 
eloquent  and  fiery  Frenchman,  Pierre  Soule,  or  the 
honest,  sturdy  German,  Christian  Eoselius,  both  of 
whom,  though  certainly  already  surpassed  at  the  bar 
by  this  extraordinary  young  man,  were  older  and  more 
experienced  politicians.  But  in  the  actual  adjustment 
of  the  matters  in  dispute  between  the  city  and  the 

1  Newspaper  reports  of  proceedings  are  very  meagre,  hence  I  rely 
in  the  following  pages  chiefly  on  the  Debates,  giving  specific  refer 
ence  only  for  matters  of  importance. 


POLITICS  AND  CONSTITUTION  MAKING    79 

country,  Benjamin  took  the  lead,  and  brought  about 
a  settlement  which,  though  not  satisfactory  to  him  or 
to  his  colleagues,  was  better  than  their  uncompromis 
ing  methods  would  ever  have  attained. 

In  connection  with  this  matter,  Benjamin  spoke 
several  times.  So  extreme  was  the  jealousy  of  New 
Orleans  that,  although  the  city  had  nearly  one  half  of 
the  total  population  of  the  state,  it  was  attempted  to 
restrict  her  representation  to  twenty  members,  even  to 
eighteen,  in  a  house  of  one  hundred  j — nay,  to  provide 
that,  whatever  the  city's  population,  not  more  than 
one-sixth  of  the  one  hundred  members  should  be  from 
New  Orleans.  Finding  himself  unable,  in  the  com 
mittee  which  had  charge  of  the  apportionment  of  rep 
resentation,  to  get  anything  like  justice  for  the  city, 
Benjamin  had  consented  to  a  compromise.  He  was 
full  of  the  spirit  of  concession.  Even  such  an  op 
ponent  as  Downs,  the  leader  of  the  extreme  Democratic 
faction,  said  : '  u  Mr.  Benjamin,  with  that  spirit  of 
truth  and  candor  for  which  he  is  justly  distinguished, 
has  come  into  our  midst  in  the  spirit  of  conciliation 
and  harmony  ;  .  .  .  and  if  any  good  should  result 
from  his  offer,  ...  to  him  alone  should  belong  the 
honor  and  the  credit  of  the  final  settlement  of  this 
difficult  question. "  This  particular  compromise  was 
not  successful ;  but,  as  I  have  said,  the  arrangement 
was  on  the  basis  of  mutual  concessions  suggested,  and 
supported  in  spite  of  some  ill-natured  comments,  by 
Benjamin,  whose  attitude  toward  opponents  through 
out  his  political  life  is  well  indicated  in  one  of  the 
short  speeches  he  made  in  the  endeavor  to  win  over 
his  obstinate  colleagues  from  New  Orleans  : 
1  Debates,  March  3,  p.  382  ;  for  Benjamin's  speech,  March  6,  p.  387. 


80  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

"How  can  any  one  expect  that  lie  can  induce  those 
who  differ  with  him  to  change  their  opinions,  when 
he  begins  by  telling  them  that  he  is  impracticably 
wedded  to  his  own,  and  that  whatever  may  be  their 
arguments  he  will  not  change  that  opinion?  This 
question,  I  am  sorry  to  see,  has  been  discussed  in  such 
a  spirit  of  intolerance  as  to  have  caused  much  warmth 
of  feeling,  and  to  have  provoked  personalities  that 
ought  to  have  been  avoided.  .  .  .  One  of  my 
brother  delegates  [Mr.  Eoselius]  has  told  us  that  he  will 
never  consent  to  a  compromise  of  principle,  and  so 
persuaded  is  he  that  he  is  right  in  that  doctrine,  that  I 
have  no  hopes  of  inducing  him  to  yield  his  support  to 
my  proposition.  I  think  he  is  wrong,  and  I  regret  his 
determination.  With  similar  resolutions,  it  may  be 
said  to  be  impossible  to  form  a  constitution.  We  have 
the  knowledge  that  there  were  great  divergences  of 
opinion  in  the  Federal  convention, — and  it  is  a  notori 
ous  fact  that  the  Constitution  never  would  have  been 
formed  had  there  not  been  mutual  concessions  on  the 
part  of  its  illustrious  framers.  If  a  similar  spirit  had 
not  pervaded  the  Virginia  convention,  to  which  refer 
ence  has  so  frequently  been  had,  and  in  which  some 
of  the  same  distinguished  men  participated,  the  con 
stitution  of  that  state  would  never  have  been  formed. 
.  .  .  It  appears  that  the  delegation  from  the  city 
must  make  concessions  ...  or  withdraw  from 
the  convention.  There  is  no  other  alternative.  I  am 
as  anxious  as  my  colleagues  can  be  to  insist  upon  the 
just  proportion  of  power  belonging  to  the  city,  but  as 
I  am  met  by  the  determined  and  impracticable  resist 
ance  of  the  majority  of  this  body,  I  am  willing  to 
make  some  concessions,  provided  the  country  is  dis- 


POLITICS  AND  CONSTITUTION  MAKING    81 

posed  to  meet  us  in  something  like  a  similar  spirit, 
and  will  not  expect  the  city  to  make  all  the  sacri 
fices." 

Throughout  the  session  of  the  convention,  which  was 
extraordinarily  prolonged  by  the  interminable  debates, 
the  endless  and  useless  motions  to  reconsider,  on  such 
questions  as  the  basis  of  representation  for  the  state, 
the  apportionment  of  representatives,  the  boundaries 
of  senatorial  districts,  and  the  qualifications  to  be  ex 
acted  of  members  of  the  legislature,  Mr.  Benjamin  was 
almost  constantly  in  attendance.  With  morning  and 
evening  sittings,  we  can  only  wonder  how  a  man  busy 
with  an  extensive  law  practice,  and  devoting  at  least 
part  of  his  time  to  his  plantation  interests,  could  find 
it  possible  to  be  present  day  in  and  day  out  at  the  con 
vention,  from  January  14th  to  May  16th.  He  did  go, 
somehow,  and  not  infrequently  his  presence  enabled 
him  to  frustrate  schemes  hostile  to  the  city,  as  when 
some  unscrupulous  member,  noting  that  the  house  was 
thin,  would  move  to  reconsider  the  never-ending  ap 
portionment  of  members  in  the  legislature,  which  the 
city  delegation  had  fondly  hoped  was  finally  settled  by 
the  last  three-hour  wrangle.  No  member  from  the 
city,  indeed,  was  so  regular  in  attendance,  or  so  active 
in  many  matters  before  the  convention ;  and  the  fact 
that  Benjamin  bore  the  lion's  share  of  the  actual  work, 
—the  drawing  up  of  articles  for  consideration,  the 
correction  of  absolutely  glaring  errors  in  those  sub 
mitted  by  others,  the  mere  auditing  of  accounts  and 
keeping  track  of  the  printing  on  behalf  of  the  Com 
mittee  on  Contingent  Expenses, — is  manifest  in  the 
debates,  and  was  recognized  by  the  newspapers  then 
and  when  the  next  convention  assembled. 


82  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

We  should  be  utterly  mistaken,  however,  if  we  im 
agined  that  he  was  either  an  interminable  or  an  in 
cessant  speaker.  He  spoke  frequently,  for  he  had 
something  practical  or  sensible  to  say  or  some  definite 
object  in  saying  it,  on  most  of  the  important  matters  to 
be  considered ;  but  he  does  not  approach  the  Demo 
cratic  leader,  Downs.  He  never  made  a  long  speech, 
again  in  agreeable  contrast  to  his  oratorical  opponent. 
And  it  will  be  seen  from  the  fragments  of  his  addresses 
which  I  shall  find  occasion  to  give,  that  his  style  is  sim 
ple,  direct,  lucid,  so  plain  as  to  come  near  baldness 
were  it  not  for  the  skill  with  which  he  handles  it ;  this, 
too,  is  in  marked  contrast  to  the  Gothic  splendors  of 
American  forensics  at  that  time.  Perhaps  legal  train 
ing,  especially  in  the  unemotional  commercial  law  to 
which  he  had  chiefly  devoted  himself,  had  something 
to  do  with  this  peculiarity  of  style,  a  peculiarity  which 
has  its  exact  analogue  in  Mr.  Benjamin's  common- 
sense  businesslike  methods  in  this  convention  and  in 
other  similar  bodies.  It  was  most  unprofessional, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  politician,  this  acting  on 
the  assumption  that  the  making  of  a  constitution  was 
a  business,  and  should  be  attended  to  like  any  other 
business,  with  the  object  of  getting  it  done  as  speedily 
and  in  as  workmanlike  a  manner  as  possible. 

As  indicated  in  the  statement  of  his  opinions  before 
election,  Benjamin  was  extremely  conservative  in  most 
of  his  views.  His  vote  was  given  unhesitatingly  for 
an  appointed  judiciary ;  he  advocated  an  appointed 
secretary  of  state  ;  and  he  wished  to  make  amendment 
of  the  constitution  even  more  difficult  than  it  was 
finally  made  by  the  convention.  He  spoke  and  voted, 
vainly,  in  favor  of  an  article  requiring  a  registration 


POLITICS  AND  CONSTITUTION  MAKING    83 

law,  which  he  and  Mr.  Conrad  advocated  on  grounds 
that  are  now  the  axioms  of  political  science — foremost 
of  all,  the  inevitable  temptation  to  corruption, — but 
the  Democrats  declared  registration  un-American, 
derogatory  to  the  dignity  and  independence  of  freemen, 
dangerous,  oppressive,  tyrannous,  and  more  corrupt 
than  absolutely  unregulated  voting.1 

But  there  are  two  important  questions  on  which  Mr. 
Benjamin  spoke  and  voted  in  a  way  which,  then  and 
afterward,  rendered  him  liable  to  attack.  The  first 
of  these  was  "  naturalization "  (by  which,  as  noted 
above,  was  meant  the  acquisition  of  the  suffrage),  and 
the  special  qualifications  to  be  imposed  upon  candi 
dates  for  the  General  Assembly  and  for  the  governor 
ship.  The  second  was  the  basis  that  should  be  adopted 
in  computing  representation  in  the  legislature. 

When,  on  January  21st,  the  question  was  discussed, 
whether  or  not  it  would  be  advisable  to  require 
a  term  of  residence  in  the  state  as  a  pre-requisite  to 
membership  in  the  legislature,  Benjamin  was  among 
the  considerable  minority  who  voted  in  favor  of  insist 
ing  that  no  man  should  be  a  representative  who  had 
not  been  four,  even  five  years,  a  resident  and  citizen.2 
And  when  the  matter  came  up  again  two  or  three 
days  later,  he  made  a  remarkable  speech  in  favor  of  a 
similar  limitation,  saying  :  "Any  stranger  that  would 
have  entered  this  room  during  any  stage  of  our  discus 
sion  would  have  supposed  that  we  were  debating  a 
constitution  for  Europeans,  or  the  people  of  the  other 
states,  and  not  for  Louisiana.  For  the  whole  burthen 
of  what  has  been  said  has  been  rather  what  privileges 

1  Debates,  pp.  187,  289,  406;  cf.  Picayune,  Feb.  8. 

2  Debates,  p.  88 ;  Picayune,  Jan.  24. 


84  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

should  be  granted  to  strangers  coming  among  us,  than 
what  rights  and  what  guaranties  we  should  secure  to 
ourselves.  .  .  .  The  question  before  us,  divested 
of  all  the  extraneous  matters  with  which  it  has  been 
clogged,  is  a  simple  one. 1  It  is  a  question  of  security. 
This  state  is  peculiarly  situated,  and  her  position  ex 
acts  some  measures  of  prudent  forethought,  in  order  to 
shield  her  from  assaults  upon  a  vulnerable  point.  Her 
peculiar  institutions  are  liable  to  attack,  and  it  is  to 
preclude  the  danger  which  menaces  her  that  some 
measure,  similar  to  the  one  under  discussion,  is  deemed 
of  vital  importance.  .  .  .  What  is  really  the  mat 
ter  in  dispute  I  It  is  this,  that  no  one  shall  be  eligible 
to  the  General  Assembly  who  has  not  resided  four  years 
in  the  state,  if  he  be  a  citizen  of  the  United  States  by 
birth  or  by  adoption.  What  objection  can  there  pos 
sibly  exist  to  this  provision  ?  It  is  assumed  that  it  is 
an  unequal,  unjust,  and  anti-republican  restriction. 
.  .  .  Where  is  the  impropriety  of  protecting,  by  re 
quiring  residence  the  institutions  we  have  met  to  re 
model  and  to  perfect  ?  .  .  .  All  are  willing  that 
two  years'  residence,  should  be  required.  That  is  con- 


1  The  debates  are  miserably  reported,  and  there  was  complaint 
of  this  at  the  time.  The  reporter,  incredible  as  it  may  seem,  was 
not  a  stenographer,  and  we  can  quite  believe,  as  one  member  re 
marked  in  excusing  him,  that  "  it  was  very  difficult  to  report  the 
remarks  of  gentlemen  that  spoke  with  the  fluency  and  rapidity  of 
the  delegate  from  New  Orleans  " — meaning  Benjamin.  Speeches  are 
rarely  reported  in  direct  discourse,  and  on  the  present  occasion  the 
ingenious  reporter  has  mingled  direct  and  indirect  discourse  indis 
criminately.  I  have  taken  the  liberty,  here  and  elsewhere  below, 
of  reproducing  simply  the  direct  discourse.  Where  there  is  such 
inaccuracy,  it  would  not  be  just,  of  course,  to  accept  any  speech  as 
a  sample  of  the  speaker's  oratory ;  but  the  reports  are  sufficiently 
trustworthy  on  mere  matters  of  fact  to  warrant  us  in  taking 
them  as  fairly  representing  the  speaker's  opinions. 


POLITICS  AND  CONSTITUTION  MAKING    86 

ceded  to  be  correct.  But  four  years  is  '  aristocratic,7 
an  attempt  to  create  a  '  privileged  class/  a  *  nobility.' 
.  .  .  There  is  one  subject  that  I  approach  with 
great  reluctance.  It  is  a  subject  of  vital  importance  to 
the  Southern  states,  and  should  produce  at  least 
unanimity  in  our  councils,  to  avert  a  common  danger. 
It  is  not  the  part  of  wisdom,  however  we  may  differ,  to 
wrangle  where  the  safety  of  all  may  be  compromitted. 
I  would  scorn  to  appeal  to  party  considerations.  A 
question  may  arise  in  a  few  months  that  will  obliterate 
all  party  distinctions,  when  there  will  be  neither  Whigs 
nor  Democrats ;  when  the  whole  South  will  coalesce 
and  form  a  single  party,  and  that  party  will  be  for  the 
protection  of  our  hearths,  of  our  families,  of  our  homes. 
That  man  must  be  indeed  blind  not  to  perceive  from 
whence  the  danger  comes.  The  signs  are  pregnant 
with  evil.  The  speck  upon  the  horizon  that  at  first 
was  no  bigger  than  a  man's  hand,  overshadows  us,  and 
there  is  not  a  breeze  that  blows  that  does  not  sound 
the  tocsin  of  alarm.  The  light  is  shut  out,  and  we 
should  prepare  ourselves  to  meet  the  emergency,  when 
ever  it  may  come.  Our  organic  law  would  be  deficient 
if  it  did  not  provide  a  bulwark,  if  it  did  not  guard  us 
from  the  machinations  of  an  insidious  foe.  The  course 
of  events  within  the  last  few  months  proves  that  we 
must  rely  upon  ourselves  and  our  Southern  confederates 
to  maintain  our  rights  and  cause  them  to  be  respected, 
and  not  upon  the  stipulations  in  the  Federal  compact. 
We  must  insist  for  ample  security  for  those  rights." 

Mr.  Benjamin  was  considered  an  alarmist  when  he 
spoke  thus  in  1845.  He  was  still  so  regarded  when 
he  repeated  the  substance  of  his  warning  in  1855. 
Whether  the  means  with  which  he  proposed  to  meet 


86  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

the  danger  were  adequate  or  not,  events  have  proven 
his  fears  too  well-founded.  It  is  clear  from  this  speech 
and  others  on  similar  subjects  that,  as  noted  above, 
two  years  of  experience  in  public  life  had  enabled  him 
to  rise  above  mere  Whig  partisanship  to  something 
like  a  broad  view  of  the  conditions  affecting  not  only 
Louisiana  but  the  whole  South.  In  this  particular 
instance  his  policy  was  for  the  safeguarding  of  Louisi 
ana  alone.  He  would  have  inserted  in  her  constitu 
tion  every  provision,  however  remote  its  application 
might  appear,  to  preclude  the  possibility  of  her  own 
bona  fide  citizens  losing  control  of  the  government  of 
the  state.  The  justification  of  slavery  is  quite  aside 
from  the  purposes  of  this  comment.  Slavery  has  long 
since  ceased  to  be  an  academic  question  or  a  question 
of  any  sort.  In  the  Northern  states  at  this  time  it 
was  an  academic  question.  In  Louisiana,  and  to  Mr. 
Benjamin  and  the  great  majority  of  the  people,  it  was 
not  an  academic  question,  but  merely  a  question  of 
their  right  to  their  own  property,  a  right  which  was 
menaced  by  Abolition  activities.  The  idea  that  the 
slave  was  property,  just  like  any  other  property,  was 
as  old,  certainly,  as  the  Constitution,  though  at  first  it 
had  been  but  a  vague,  inchoate  notion.  Little  by  little 
finding  articulate  expression  till  it  became  a  part  of 
the  Southern  political  creed,  it  was  vigorously  re 
asserted  in  broader  terms  in  the  Dred  Scott  Decision. 
To  the  exposition,  the  extension  and  the  advancement 
of  this  idea,  viz.,  that  the  slave  was  property,  and  that 
therefore  protection  in  the  enjoyment  of  this  property 
must  be  assured  to  the  owner  by  the  Federal  govern 
ment,  Benjamin  was  from  this  time  forth  to  devote 
much  of  his  talent  as  a  debater. 


POLITICS  AND  CONSTITUTION  MAKING    87 

The  same  purpose  on  Mr.  Benjamin's  part,  crops 
out,  though  not  openly  avowed,  in  another  remarkable 
speech  on  his  proposition  that  the  governor  should  be 
a  native  of  the  United  States — he  would  have  pre 
ferred  to  say,  a  native  of  the  state.  This  speech '  was 
made  in  reply  to  several  long  ones  by  those  whose 
views  were  more  popular,  especially  Pierre  Soule, 
himself  a  native  of  France,  who  was  so  radical  in  his 
opinions  that  he  had  been  compelled  to  leave  his  home, 
and  who  had  since  won  a  high  and  honorable  rank  as 
lawyer,  politician,  and  orator,  in  his  adopted  state. 
In  his  opening  words  Mr.  Benjamin  avows  his  entire 
responsibility  for  the  proposition  under  discussion,  and 
that,  "  it  was  at  my  suggestion  that  the  word  *  native 1 
[the  gist  of  the  controversy]  was  inserted  in  the  sec 
tion  now  before  us  for  our  consideration.  If  therefore, 
sir,  there  be  censure  to  be  cast  upon  any  one  for  that 
apparently  objectionable  word,  upon  my  shoulders  it 
must  in  justice  fall."  He  then  replies  to,  or  rather 
utterly  demolishes  the  constitutional  arguments  offered 
by  Soule, — an  easy  task  in  this  case,  for  Soule  had 
nothing  to  stand  on  when  he  maintained  that  it  would 
be  unconstitutional  for  the  state  to  require,  like  the 
United  States,  that  its  chief  executive  should  be  a 
native, — showing  that  an  article  similar  to  the  one 
under  discussion  had  been  adopted  in  the  constitutions 
of  Virginia,  of  Arkansas,  of  Alabama,  and  of  Mis 
souri,  and  had  been  sanctioned  by  the  action  of  Con 
gress  in  the  case  of  the  last  three. 

"In  a  word,  then,  sir,  I  assert  that  our  power  to  in 
sert  the  clause  disputed  is  not  a  doubtful  question  ; 

1  Debates,  Feb.  14,  pp.  221-234. 


88  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

that  we  have  the  power  to  do  so  constitutionally,  and 
the  only  question  we  now  have  to  decide  is,  Is  it  ex 
pedient  for  us  to  do  so  ?  My  own  impression  is  that 
we  should  unhesitatingly  insert  it,  if  we  study  our  own 
interests.  When  I  first  proposed  to  the  committee  to 
insert  it  in  the  section,  it  was  a  natural  instinct  that 
prompted  me  to  believe  that  it  was  necessary.  Since 
then  I  have  given  the  subject  calm  and  serious  de 
liberation,  and  I  have  daily,  nay,  hourly,  become 
more  and  more  convinced  of  the  necessity  and  pro 
priety  of  the  measure. 

"  Sir,  I  have  listened  with  delight  to  the  eloquent 
eulogy  pronounced  by  the  delegate  from  New  Orleans 
[Soule]  on  the  brave  men  who  lent  us  their  aid  in  1815 
— on  Savary,  St.  Gemes,  and  their  associates.  I  have 
witnessed  in  imagination  the  memorable  scenes  so 
graphically  and  eloquently  described  by  the  honorable 
gentleman  from  Eapides  [Mr.  Brent],  and  I  have  felt 
my  heart  glow  with  feelings  of  gratitude  toward  the 
brave  and  generous  men  who,  amidst  the  smoke  and 
carnage  of  battle  breasted  the  British  bayonets,  and, 
side  by  side  with  American  citizens,  periled  their 
lives  in  our  country's  cause.  Honor  and  gratitude  to 
them  all !  And  I  will  yield  to  no  man  in  expressing 
on  all  occasions,  and  in  all  suitable  manner,  the 
acknowledgments  that  are  due  to  their  eminent  serv 
ices.  But,  sir,  let  us  not  allow  our  feelings  to  ob 
tain  the  mastery  over  our  judgment.  Those  brave 
men  were  the  sons  of  France,  and  the  enemy  was  the 
hereditary  foe  of  France.  Sir,  does  the  gentleman, 
can  any  man,  believe  that,  if  our  invaders  had  been 
French,  these  gallant  men  would  have  gone  to  battle 
against  their  countrymen  I  Sir,  they  would  have  re 
coiled  with  horror  at  the  forethought  [sic]  with  the 
same  instinctive  abhorrence  as  if  called  on  to  smite 
the  cheek  of  the  mother  that  bore  them.  How  then, 
sir,  can  we  place  as  the  commander-in-chief  of  our 
armies  an  individual  who  in  the  event  of  war  with  the 
country  of  his  birth  would  be  exposed  to  this  conflict 


POLITICS  AND  CONSTITUTION  MAKING    89 

of  duties  and  of  feelings?  The  honorable  gentleman 
tells  us  that  in  an  event  like  this,  a  gallant  spirit, 
stifling  all  that  love  of  country,  of  our  natal  soil,  that 
the  Creator  has  implanted  in  the  breast  of  every  man, 
would  take  for  his  motto,  l  Fais  ce  que  dois,  advienne 
que  pourra. '  Sir,  this  may  sound  very  finely  in  theory, 
but  every  feeling  of  our  nature  would  recoil  from  its 
practice.  I  call  on  the  gentleman  to  point  out  to  me 
the  man,  nay,  sir,  I  ask  if  he  himself,  and  surely 
there  is  none  whose  eminence  as  a  citizen  would  render 
him  more  worthy  of  so  exalted  a  station, — I  ask  if  he 
himself,  as  commander  of  our  armies,  were  called  to 
lead  our  forces  into  the  field  against  the  country  of 
his  birth,  would  he  not  feel  his  inmost  soul  revolt  at 
the  bare  idea  ?  Whether  the  bare  sight  of  the  flag  of 
his  native  country  would  not  bring  back  upon  his 
memory  every  thought  and  feeling  of  his  childhood 
and  his  youth,  and  whether  he  could  steel  his  heart  to 
the  task  of  carrying  death  and  carnage  into  the  midst 
of  those  in  whose  ranks  might,  perchance,  be  found 
the  playmates  of  his  childhood,  the  companions  of  his 
youth,  nay,  perhaps  a  brother  or  a  parent?  Never, 
sir,  never  could  he  do  it.  It  is  our  duty  then,  sir,  in 
making  this  organic  law,  to  provide  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  render  it  impossible,  in  any  contingency,  for  our 
chief  magistrate  to  be  placed  in  such  a  position.  The 
necessity  is  too  apparent  to  admit  of  doubt.  .  .  . 

"Once  again,  sir,  let  not  the  feelings  which  dictated 
the  proposal  of  this  measure  be  misunderstood.  Let 
it  not  be  said  that  it  is  an  attack  directed  against  the 
naturalized  citizen.  He  is  received  with  open  arms 
into  the  country.  Every  avenue  to  fortune  which 
cupidity  could  desire,  every  path  to  office  which  the 
most  unbounded  ambition  can  aspire  [to],  are  all 
opened  to  him.  Is  it  too  much  to  ask  that  there 
should  be  one  small  spot  reserved  for  the  native  of  the 
soil  ?  that  the  chief  magistracy  of  the  state,  as  that  of 
the  United  States,  shall  be  regarded  as  a  temple  within 
whose  precincts  none  but  the  American  people  them- 


90  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

selves  shall  ever  be  permitted  an  entrance  ?  Our  duty 
to  our  country  makes  it  necessary  that  we  should  so 
determine,  and  I  trust  that  such  will  be  the  vote  of 
this  convention." 

For  one  who  was  himself  an  adopted  citizen,  as  he 
said,  but  "  sixteen  years  a  resident  in  the  state,"  and 
whose  career  might  certainly  lead  him  to  the  governor 
ship  if  he  had  any  desire  for  it,  this  was  a  remarkable 
position  to  assume.  He  was  not  satisfied  with,  though 
he  reluctantly  accepted,  the  article  as  finally  put  into 
the  constitution,  prescribing  fifteen  years'  residence 
for  the  office.  And  the  motive  underlying  this  and 
other  extreme  undemocratic  opinions  was  a  wish, 
which  cannot  but  seem  exaggerated,  to  * '  provide  a 
bulwark  in  our  organic  law  against  the  machinations 
of  an  insidious  foe." 

It  was  not  often  that  Mr.  Benjamin  showed  himself 
lacking  in  tact  and  consideration  for  the  feelings  of 
others.  Sometimes,  it  is  true,  such  an  opponent  as 
the  rather  pompous  Downs  furnished  so  tempting  a 
mark  for  ready  sarcasm  as  to  be  absolutely  irresistible, 
and  Mr.  Benjamin  would  succumb  to  temptation,  and 
afterward  have  to  exert  all  of  his  affability  to  smooth 
the  ruffled  dignity  of  his  victim.  But  the  closing  part 
of  this  speech  is  not  judicious  :  the  arguments  adduced 
could  not  carry  conviction  ;  they  might  and  did  give 
serious  offense  to  the  hypersensitive  Creoles.  The 
next  day  the  valuable  time  of  the  convention  was 
taken  up  by  fiery  vindications  of  the  unimpeachable 
patriotism  of  the  Creoles  of  Louisiana,  all  of  which 
may  be  found  in  the  Debates,  printed  at  state  expense. 
Among  those  who  spoke,  the  most  remarkable  and  the 
most  effective  was  one  long  celebrated  in  local  annals, 


POLITICS  AND  CONSTITUTION  MAKING    91 

—Bernard  Marigny,  whose  immediate  ancestors  for 
several  generations  had  been  Chevaliers  of  the  Order 
of  Saint  Louis  ;  who  had  squandered  more  money, 
certainly,  than  any  man  in  Louisiana  ;  who  had  been, 
in  1803,  the  leader  and  pattern  of  the  jeunesse  doree ; 
who  had  served  in  the  first  state  convention  of  1812  ; 
who  had  visited  and  been  received  by  that  temporary 
monarch,  Louis  Philippe,  in  return  for  hospitality 
once  accorded  by  the  Marignys  to  a  certain  young 
Louis  Egalite  with  no  place  to  lay  his  head  ;  and  who, 
finally,  in  spite  of  all  this  personal  and  ancestral  con 
nection  with  aristocracy,  was  almost  a  radical  demo 
crat.  His  reply,  though  less  polished  than  Benjamin's 
speech,  and  marred  by  outbursts  of  somewhat  inco 
herent  passion,  is  really  sufficient  to  demolish  Benja 
min's  main  point,  viz.,  that  a  man  would  not  lead  an 
army  against  his  countrymen. 

We  have  yet  to  consider  Mr.  Benjamin's  position  on 
the  basis  of  representation,  which  may  sound  as  if  it 
ought  to  be  a  matter  of  no  importance  and  capable  of 
easy  adjustment,  but  which  really  brings  us  at  once 
face  to  face  with  the  slavery  question. 

The  distribution  of  slave  inhabitants  in  Louisiana 
was  really  the  cause  of  the  whole  difficulty.  Then  as 
now,  the  hilly  parishes  in  the  northern  portion  of  the 
state  enjoyed  a  preponderance  of  white  over  negro 
population.  In  the  sugar  district  (which  may  be 
roughly  defined  as  lying  south  of  Baton  Eouge,  ex 
clusive  of  New  Orleans),  and  in  the  alluvial  parishes 
in  the  cotton  district,  such  as  Tensas  and  Concor- 
dia,  the  slaves  were  plainly  in  the  majority.  More 
over,  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  taxable  wealth  of 
Louisiana  lay  in  or  was  produced  by  these  negro  par- 


92  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

ishes.  New  Orleans  alone,  in  the  southern  part  of  the 
state,  could  really  claim  a  heavy  preponderance  of 
whites  over  blacks  and  at  the  same  time  a  heavy  pro 
portion  of  taxable  wealth.  When  people  representing 
interests  as  varied  as  those  of  the  parishes  of  De  Soto, 
Lafourche,  and  Orleans  attempt  to  find  a  basis  for 
representation  that  will  give  fair  political  weight  to 
the  sturdy  white  farmers  who  own  no  slaves,  and  who 
are  few  in  numbers  and  poor,  with  the  same  for  the 
wealthy  planters  who  are  also  few  in  numbers  but  whose 
slaves  make  so  much  wealth  for  the  state,  and  again 
the  same  for  the  merchants  and  white  laborers  of  the 
one  great  city  in  the  state,  difficulty  is  not  far  to  seek. 

A  similar  obstacle,  it  will  be  remembered,  had  been 
met  and  overcome  by  the  frarners  of  the  Federal  Con 
stitution  :  Shall  the  slaves  of  Virginia  count  as  much 
as  the  freemen  of  Massachusetts  !  Virginia  said,  yes  ; 
Massachusetts  said,  no.  Hence  the  compromise : 
"  Eepresentatives  and  direct  taxes  shall  be  apportioned 
among  the  several  states  .  .  .  according  to  their 
respective  numbers,  which  shall  be  determined  by  add 
ing  to  the  whole  number  of  free  persons,  including 
those  bound  to  service  for  a  term  of  years,  .  .  . 
three-fifths  of  all  other  persons."  Thus  the  "  Federal 
basis"  came  to  be  applied  in  those  states  that  had  to 
deal  with  the  problem  of  slave  representation  in  their 
legislatures.  There  were  two  other  bases  that  might 
be  used  for  the  computation:  the  "total  population 
basis,"  and  the  "qualified  electors  basis,"  the  latter 
susceptible  of  various  slight  modifications. 

The  committee  in  charge  of  the  article  involving  this 
question  brought  in  a  report  (February  4th)  providing 
for  the  "  Federal  basis."  Mr.  Benjamin,  then  and  when 


POLITICS  AND  CONSTITUTION  MAKING    93 

the  article  again  came  up  for  discussion  a  month  later, 
denounced  the  proposition  in  terms  more  than  usually 
uncompromising  and  vigorous.1  "I  ask  you  if  the 
Federal  basis  of  representation,  as  adopted  in  the  re 
port,  is  not  a  clear  departure  from  the  very  principle 
and  essence  of  democratic  government?  For,  what 
does  it  propose  ?  It  proposes  taking  a  part  of  the 
power  of  representation  from  the  electors,  to  whom 
alone  it  belongs,  and  conferring  it  on  the  slaves.  And 
those  who  raise  their  voices  against  so  flagrant  a  prop, 
osition  are,  it  is  insinuated,  favoring  the  views  of  the 
Abolitionists!  Why,  .  .  .  it  is  the  party  who 
make  the  accusation  who  are  upholding  the  doctrine 
of  the  Abolitionists  ;  they  are  for  giving  the  slaves 
political  consequence, — the  very  thing  for  which  the 
Abolitionists  have  been  for  years  contending.  I  am 
for  regarding  them  as  they  are  regarded  by  the  law — 
mere  property.  Is  it  not  so  ?  ... 

"  Slaves  are,  by  our  laws,  nothing  but  property. 
But,  says  the  delegate  from  Lafourche  [Mr.  Beatty], 
we  should  allow  them  to  form  a  part  of  the  basis  of 
representation  because  they  are  productive  labor,  and 
labor  should  be  represented.  If  this  argument  hold 
good,  then  it  might,  with  equal  propriety,  be  urged 
that  we  should  allow  representation  to  horses,  oxen, 
etc.,  which  are  attached  to  the  glebe,  and  which  are 
equally  productive  labor.  This  is  the  first  time  that 
I  have  ever  heard  the  notion  that  labor  should  form  a 
part  of  the  basis  of  representation,  .  .  .  and  es 
pecially  that  particular  kind  of  labor.  .  .  . 

"By  the  principle  which  they  [his  opponents]  lay 
down,  would  not  a  man  owning  five  minor  slaves  have 

1  Debates,  pp.  156,  360,  368-371 ;  of.  Picayune,  Feb.  5. 


94  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

a  representation  equal  to  four  votes,  whilst  a  man  hav 
ing  five  minor  children  would  have  a  representation  of 
but  one  vote  f  If  property  is  to  be  represented  at  all, 
why  not  all  property  1  Why  not  houses  and  lands  I 
.  .  .  Or  if  at  all,  why  not  make  it  a  qualification 
for  voting  ?  ' ' 

Even  more  distinctly,  in  the  later  speech,  he  states 
that,  "  when  in  the  committee,  I  opposed  the  insertion 
of  [the  Federal]  basis,  not  because  I  did  not  think  New 
Orleans  would  get  as  much  by  adopting  that  as  by 
taking  any  other  basis  that  might  be  selected.  On 
the  contrary,  I  think  New  Orleans  would  gain  by  it  in 
that  respect ;  but  I  opposed  it  because  I  thought  it 
radically  wrong.  ...  I  opposed  it  because  I 
thought  it  would  operate  unjustly.  I  regard  repre 
sentation  as  a  correlative  term ;  I  believe  that  there 
can  be  no  representation  unless  from  the  choice  of 
those  represented  ;  and  I  am  opposed  to  any  other 
basis  than  that  of  free  white  population.77 

Once  later  on  he  proposed  apportionment  on  the 
total  population  basis,  which  would  have  been  just 
two-fifths  more  unfair  and  undemocratic  than  the 
Federal  basis  ;  but  this  was  merely  a  compromise  offered 
in  desperation  and  soon  abandoned.  He  contended 
persistently,  and  with  ultimate  success,  against  the 
Federal  basis  or  any  other  basis  that  involved  rep 
resentation  of  slaves.  And  his  statement  of  the  case 
against  the  principle  involved  is  so  perfectly  simple 
and  clear,  so  free  from  the  casuistry  with  which  he 
was  accused  of  upholding  more  doubtful  cases  in  law 
and  in  politics,  that  one  cannot  forget  it. 

On  the  many  minor  points  of  Mr.  Benjamin7 s  activ 
ities  in  the  convention  of  1845  we  need  not  pause  to 


POLITICS  AND  CONSTITUTION  MAKING    95 

comment.  In  all  essentials  he  lived  up  to  the  prom 
ises  he  had  made  before  election ;  and  where  he 
deviated  from  them,  it  will  be  found  that  he  did  so  in 
behalf  of  some  compromise  which  would  at  least  ac 
complish  part  of  the  desired  end.  After  a  careful  ex 
amination  of  the  press,  and  particularly  of  the  opposi 
tion  press,  always  ready  to  find  fault,  I  find  no  criti 
cism  of  his  conduct  that  merits  the  least  mention. 
And  that  his  own  party  endorsed  his  action  is  suf 
ficiently  established  by  their  continued  confidence. 

For  six  or  seven  years  after  1845  there  is  little  in 
Mr.  Benjamin's  public  career  that  needs  comment. 
This  was  the  time  of  his  plantation  success  and  dis 
aster,  of  which  we  have  already  spoken,  and  of  the 
renewed  activity  as  a  lawyer  that  was  to  follow  planting 
losses,  of  which  we  shall  also  have  something  to 
say  later  on.  He  was  still  ready  with  his  advice  when 
the  party  required  it,  and  did  not  by  any  means  cease 
to  take  part  in  state  campaigns  ;  but  of  the  scores  of 
political  speeches  it  were  worse  than  useless  to  remark 
in  detail  unless  they  express  opinions  of  more  than 
local  or  temporary  interest.  Like  nearly  all  Southern 
ers,  he  was  in  favor  of  that  war  with  Mexico  which 
our  better  judgment  constrains  us  to  condemn  as  in 
defensible.  He  was  a  Presidential  elector  on  the  Whig 
ticket  in  the  campaign  which  justified  the  victory  over 
Mexico  by  the  election  of  Taylor.  And  he  was  too 
good  a  Whig  and  too  good  a  Louisianian  not  to  stand 
by  the  candidate  of  his  party  and  his  state,  though 
his  undisguised  admiration  for  Clay  and  Webster 
could  not  fail  to  make  him  feel  that  the  party  had 
chosen  the  man  who  could  be,  rather  than  the  man 
who  should  have  been,  elected. 


CHAPTER  IV 

FKOM  STATE  POLITICS  TO   THE  SENATE 

WHEN  the  Compromise  of  1850,  admitting  Califor 
nia  as  a  free  state,  but  extending  the  possible  area  of 
slavery  over  the  remainder  of  the  territory  taken  from 
Mexico,  came  before  the  people,  Mr.  Benjamin's 
opinions  011  several  points  underwent  a  change  which 
seemed  sudden,  but  which  I  venture  to  believe  had 
been  long  prepared  for. 

The  first  expression  of  this  change  of  views  arose 
from  his  dissatisfaction  with  the  constitution  of  1845. 
He  threw  himself  into  the  movement  to  call  a  new 
convention  to  remodel  that  constitution,  which  had 
not  yet  been  six  years  in  operation.  There  were  several 
reasons  for  this  displeasure.  One  that  was  almost 
personal  had  to  do  with  an  enterprise  in  which  he  had 
recently  become  much  interested — the  Tehuantepec 
Eailroad  Company,  whose  formal  incorporation  had 
been  much  interfered  with  by  the  rigid  and  needlessly 
restrictive  provisions  of  the  old  constitution.  Of  this 
it  will  be  more  convenient  to  speak  when  we  consider 
other  similar  commercial  enterprises  in  which  Benja 
min  took  a  part.  Quite  aside  from  this  personal 
motive  for  dissatisfaction,  neither  Benjamin  nor  any 
other  New  Orleans  Whig  could  be  content  with  the 
apportionment  of  representatives,  while  the  Demo 
crats  generally  were  dissatisfied  with  the  whole  basis 
of  representation,  as  not  sufficiently  popular.  Eeason- 


FEOM  STATE  POLITICS  TO  SENATE       97 

able  men  from  both  parties  had  recovered  from  the 
panic  that  had  led  to  the  insertion  of  provisions  se 
riously  restrictive  of  banking  or  other  corporations, 
now  sorely  needed  to  aid  in  developing  the  re 
sources  of  the  state.  In  the  popular  mind  distrust  of 
the  legislature  had  somewhat  given  place  to  distrust  of 
the  executive ;  people  were  no  longer  so  much  afraid 
that  their  own  representatives  in  the  legislature  would 
rob  them  as  they  were  that  the  governor,  with  his 
extensive  powers  of  appointment,  would  exercise  al 
most  despotic  control  over  the  administration.  Some 
of  our  historians  have  remarked  that,  at  the  time  of 
the  framing  of  the  Constitution,  America  had  a  dread 
ful  bugaboo  constantly  in  mind, — George  III — and 
consequently  hedged  the  President  about  as  if  there 
were  imminent  danger  of  his  developing  into  a  Sulla, 
a  Cromwell,  or  a  Governor  Tryon  (to  use  an  illustra 
tion  that  might  have  occurred  to  them).  There  is  still 
a  little  of  this  feeling  among  us,  and  the  result  is  that 
sometimes  we  allow  our  judges  to  be  selected  for  long 
terms  by  the  governor,  and  then  again  we  have  a  re 
currence  of  the  ultra-democratic  fever  and  leave  the 
choice  of  these  officers  to  the  inscrutable  wisdom  of 
the  ballot  box.  These  were  the  sentiments  that  in 
spired  the  calling  of  a  constitutional  convention  in 
Louisiana  in  1852. 

But  before  we  tell  of  Mr.  Benjamin's  part  in  this 
convention  it  will  be  necessary  to  mention  several 
other  matters  political. 

Following  his  usual  custom,  Benjamin  went  abroad 
in  the  summer  of  1851.  He  had  not  returned  in  time 
for  the  meeting  of  the  local  Whig  convention  in  Oc 
tober,  but,  along  with  Mr.  Eobb,  his  associate  in 


98  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

many  large  enterprises,  lie  was  nominated  for  the  state 
Senate.  The  issues  in  the  state  were  so  well  defined 
that  the  local  party  platforms  are  quite  understand 
able  even  now.  That  one  upon  which  Benjamin  was 
nominated,  and  which  his  friends  assured  the  voters, 
during  his  absence,  he  would  accept,  declared  in  favor 
of  a  constitutional  convention  to  remodel  the  existing 
constitution  so  as  to  provide  for  an  elective  judiciary, 
a  well  regulated  system  of  free  banks,  the  delegating 
to  the  legislature  of  powers  to  enact  liberal  laws  for 
railways,  manufactories,  etc.,  and  other  items  of  less 
note.  Unfortunately,  the  memory  of  man  doth  run  to 
the  contrary,  when  the  length  of  the  course  is  but  six 
years.  Benjamin  was  no  sooner  nominated  than  the 
Democratic  papers,  and  even  some  that  were  by  no 
means  Democratic,  called  attention  to  the  fact  that,  in 
1845,  he  had  voted  against  every  measure  of  a  liberal 
character;  but  "Mr.  Benjamin  being  absent  in 
Europe,  his  friends,  who  put  him  in  nomination,  are 
safe  in  making  whatever  professions  they  choose  in 
his  name."  l  His  friends  did,  indeed,  promise  in  his 
name,  and  their  promises  were  made  good.  They  also, 
to  some  extent,  attempted  to  explain  Mr.  Benjamin's 
votes  in  1845,  and  to  account  for  the  change  of  views 
that  must  be  presupposed  if  he  could  honestly  stand 
on  their  platform  ;  in  this  they  were  by  no  means  very 
successful,  so  far  as  convincing  one's  reason  is  con 
cerned.  They  seemed  to  have  no  difficulty,  however, 
in  persuading  the  voters  that  Mr.  Benjamin  was  all 
right,  even  if  it  did  look  a  little  queer  to  have  him 
supporting  in  the  legislature  of  1852  many  measures 

1  True  Delta,  Oct.  28 ;  see  also  Orleanian,  Oct.   17,  Nov.   7 ;  Delta 
Oct.  9,  10,  14. 


FEOM  STATE  POLITICS  TO  SENATE       99 

he  had  opposed  in  the  convention  of  1845,  and  he  was 
elected  without  serious  trouble. 

Scarcely  had  he  been  elected,  when  it  became  clear 
that  he  was  the  strongest  candidate  for  the  United 
States  Senate.  Two  of  the  more  influential  papers  of 
his  own  party  at  first  told  him  good-naturedly  that 
such  plums  were  for  his  betters,  or  at  least  his  seniors 
in  party  service,  though  he  had  been  a  very  good 
young  man.  Duncan  F.  Kenner  is  preferred  by  one 
paper,  and  Eandell  Hunt  by  another.  And  one 
journal,  highly  approving  of  his  nomination  for  the 
state  Senate,  has  a  comment  so  significant  of  the  im 
pression  which  Mr.  Benjamin's  boyish  appearance 
(in  his  fortieth  year)  still  made  on  people,  that  I 
cannot  forbear  quoting  : l 

i '  He  is  sagacious,  possesses  great  tact,  and  would 
make  a  very  brilliant  and  effective  senator.  His 
appearance  in  that  body  would  startle  the  gossips  at 
Washington.  His  boyish  figure  and  girlish  face, — 
his  gentle,  innocent,  ingenuous  expression  and  manner, 
—his  sweet  and  beautifully  modulated  voice,  would 
render  him  decidedly  the  most  unsenatorial  figure  in 
that  body  of  gray  heads  and  full  grown  men.  But, 
when  he  should  arise  in  the  Senate,  and  in  the  most 
modest  and  graceful  manner  proceed  to  pour  forth  a 
strain  of  the  most  fluent  and  beautifully  expressed 
ideas,  of  the  most  subtle  and  ingenious  arguments, 
of  the  most  compact  and  admirably  arranged  state 
ments,— casting  a  flood  of  light  over  the  dryest  and 
most  abstruse  subjects,  and  carrying  all  minds  and 
hearts  with  him  by  his  resistless  logic  and  insinuating 
elocution, — then  would  the  old  senators  stretch  their 

1  New  Orleans  Delta,  Got.  10,  1851. 


100  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

eyes  and  mouths  with  wonder,  whispering  to  one  an 
other,  l  That's  a  devilish  smart  little  fellow,' — then 
would  all  the  ladies  declare,  i  What  a  love  of  a  man  ! J 
—what  a  perfect  Admirable  Crichton, — so  beautiful, 
yet  so  wise, — so  gentle,  yet  so  terrible  in  sarcasm, — so 
soft-toned,  yet  so  vigorous  in  logic  !  The  quid  nuncs  and 
politicians  would  join  in  the  general  wonderment,  and 
give  their  decided  opinion  that  he  was  a  psycholog 
ical,  physiological,  and  intellectual  phenomenon. 
But,  with  all  his  genius,  his  universal  talents  and 
eloquence,  Mr.  Benjamin  will  hardly  be  elected  to 
the  Senate,  because  he  is  too  valuable  and  necessary  a 
man  in  this  state.  He  is  the  acknowledged  leader  of 
several  great  enterprises,  in  which  our  state  and  city 
have  a  greater  interest  than  in  being  ably  represented 
in  the  United  States  Senate." 

When  the  time  for  the  election  came  on,  however, 
the  vote  for  Benjamin  in  the  caucus  of  his  own  party 
was  overwhelming.  He  was  nominated  on  the  second 
ballot,  receiving  thirty -seven  votes  to  Kenner's  nine 
teen,  Hunt's  eleven,  and  two  scattered.  And  in  the 
actual  election  a  Whig  victory  was  certain,  that  party 
having  a  clear  majority  of  the  General  Assembly. 
Benjamin  was  a  popular  candidate,  and  won  some 
Democratic  votes,  being  elected  by  a  majority  of 
twelve  over  his  old  antagonist  of  1845,  Solomon  W. 
Downs.  To  supporters  of  Hunt  or  Kenner,  like  the 
Delta,  Benjamin's  easy  victory  over  them  in  the 
caucus  came  as  a  surprise.  But  this  paper  1  probably 
hit  the  true  explanation  :  i  i  The  country  members 
rather  preferred  a  gentleman  .  .  .  who  .  .  . 
was  a  sugar  planter,  and  had,  therefore,  a  common 

1  Jan.  29,  1852  ;  see  also  Jan.  27. 


FEOM  STATE  POLITICS  TO  SENATE     101 

interest  and  sympathy  with  them.  Another  great  ad 
vantage  enjoyed  by  Mr.  Benjamin  was  in  the  fact  of 
being  a  prominent  member  of  the  legislature.  .  .  . 
Mr.  B.  made  good  use  of  this  advantage.  He  not 
only  rendered  himself  very  agreeable  to  the  members 
of  the  legislature,  but  he  manifested  a  zeal,  industry 
and  capacity  in  the  preparation  of  business  for  the 
legislature, — digesting  and  framing  bills,  and  drawing 
up  reports,  etc., — which  produced  a  most  favorable 
impression  as  to  his  great  practical  talent  and  use 
fulness." 

We  might  step  aside  here  for  a  moment  to  mention 
some  of  the  praises  bestowed  upon  Benjamin  in  the 
little  sketch  of  his  life  that  follows  the  comment  just 
quoted.  His  amazing  versatility,  his  rapid  rise  in 
his  profession, — "  though  not  yet  forty,  he  has  reached 
the  topmost  round  of  the  ladder  of  distinction  as  an 
advocate  and  counselor  in  this  state" — and  his 
amiable,  fascinating  personality  caused  most  frequent 
remark.  What  a  ring  of  a  by-gone  age  it  has,  when 
the  worthy  editor  undertakes  to  account  for  "  aston 
ishing  versatility,  such  as  we  have  never  seen  in  any 
man  we  ever  knew,"  in  this  fashion:  "His  head, 
phrenologically  speaking,  is  fully  developed  in  all  the 
faculties.  He  has  a  fine  imagination,  an  exquisite 
taste,  great  power  of  discrimination,  a  keen,  subtle 
logic,  excellent  memory,  admirable  talent  of  analysis." 
But  the  most  astonishing  thing  in  the  senator-elect, — 
and  here  we  must  agree  with  the  Delta, — is  that,  while 
attending  to  a  very  heavy  law  practice,  l  i  he  has  had 
time  to  look  after  one  of  the  largest  sugar  plantations 
in  the  state,  to  pay  a  yearly  visit  to  Paris,  to  see  to 
the  interest  of  the  great  Tehuautepec  enterprise,  to 


102  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

fulfil  all  of  the  duties  of  an  active  partisan,  of  a 
public-spirited  citizen,  of  a  liberal  gentleman,  with  a 
taste  for  the  elegancies,  the  social  pleasures  and  refine 
ments  of  life." 

Mr.  Benjamin's  term  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  was  not  to  begin  until  March  4,  1853.  In  the 
meanwhile  there  was  more  activity  in  political  life  than 
at  any  time  before.  He  did  not,  of  course,  resign 
from  the  State  Senate,  of  which  he  had  just  been 
elected  a  member,  and  took  a  prominent  and  very  eager 
part  in  the  actual  work  of  the  legislature  during  Jan 
uary  and  February,  1852,  making  a  long  and  successful 
fight  in  behalf  of  the  Citizens'  Bank  of  New  Orleans, 
which  brought  down  upon  him  the  unsparing  censure  of 
its  many  enemies. 

Of  the  Citizens'  Bank  it  is  only  necessary  for  us  to 
say  here  that  it  was  a  financial  institution  which  had 
suffered  in  the  panic  of  1839,  had  suspended  specie 
payments,  and,  failing  to  resume  within  the  time  pre 
scribed  by  the  legislature,  had  since  been  struggling 
to  protect  itself  from  enforced  liquidation  under  un 
favorable  conditions.  Mr.  Benjamin  was  one  of  those 
who  believed  that  the  interests  of  all  concerned  in  the 
bank  could  best  be  served  by  permitting  it  once  more 
to  resume  control  of  its  own  affairs. 2 

The  Whigs,  having  obtained  control  of  the  legisla 
ture,  strained  every  nerve  to  win  the  by-elections  in 
the  state,  and  above  all  to  control  the  constitutional 
convention  which  was  to  assemble  in  July.  Even 
the  city  election,  in  March,  was  conducted  on  national 
party  lines,  the  Whigs  making  a  vigorous  fight  in 
the  face  of  a  dangerous  opposition  and  a  split  in 

1  True  Delta,  Feb.  15,  March  3,  11  ;  Delta,  Feb.  18. 


FEOM  STATE  POLITICS  TO  SENATE     103 

their  own  ranks.  In  a  speech  at  a  great  Whig  meet 
ing  on  the  eve  of  the  election  (March  21st),  Benjamin 
urged  his  hearers  to  vote  in  favor  of  the  proposed 
constitutional  convention  and  for  delegates  to  it,  and 
to  remember  that  in  voting  at  this  election  they  would 
be  helping  to  decide  whether  the  next  four  years  of 
national  administration  should  be  Whig  or  Demo 
cratic.  For  this  excessive  partisanship  he  was  justly 
condemned  ;  the  only  excuse  which  can  be  offered  is 
that,  as  in  1845,  he  was  intent  on  issues  of  far  greater 
importance  than  those  that  lay  on  the  surface.  The 
people  were  in  favor  of  the  convention,  and  the 
Whigs  elected  at  least  a  part  of  their  ticket  in  the 
city.1 

Delegates  were  to  be  chosen  on  June  14th,  and 
again  the  Whigs,  with  Benjamin  and  Eoselius  among 
their  candidates,  made  a  strict  party  fight.  Not  only 
was  this  course  deprecated,  but  the  Delta  2  very  per 
tinently  commented  on  the  Whig  ticket:  "It  in 
cludes  two  gentlemen  who  were  prominent  members 
of  the  convention  of  1845,  and  who,  in  that  body, 
were  conspicuous  for  their  maintenance  of  those  very 
restrictions  which  have  excited  the  hostility  to  the 
constitution  that  has  led  to  the  present  movement  to 
change  it.  Mr.  Benjamin,  if  not  the  author,  was  the 
ablest  supporter  of  the  bank  prohibition  clause  ;  he 
was  also  in  favor  of  restricting  the  suffrage  ;  and, 
though  foreign  born  himself,  voted  for  the  provision 
requiring  naturalized  citizens  to  reside  here  two  years 
after  acquiring  citizenship  before  they  could  vote. 
Mr.  Eoselius  voted  for  the  same  clause/7 

1  Delta,  March  22. 

2  May  21  ;  cf.  May  8  and  18,  and  June  13  and  15. 


104  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

But  Benjamin  and  Eoselius  succeeded  in  convincing 
the  people  that  they  had  modified  their  views  on 
other  important  issues,  if  not  on  suffrage  restriction, 
and  the  Whig  delegation  was  elected  by  a  very  sub 
stantial  majority.  Meanwhile,  before  the  convention 
met,  the  Presidential  canvass  had  begun,  and  Ben 
jamin  bore  his  share  of  the  campaign  work.  A 
speech  which,  for  its  courtesy  and  eloquence,  won 
warm  praise  even  from  his  most  persistent  and  un 
compromising  critic,  the  True  Delta  (not  to  be  con 
founded  with  the  Delta)  was  delivered  at  a  great  rati 
fication  meeting  on  July  1st.  Though  a  regular  cam 
paign  speech,  full  of  "  party  thunder  "  in  places,  it  is 
remarkably  felicitous  in  expression  and  tactful  in 
matter.  There  is  a  touching  tribute  to  the  dead  Clay, 
the  lost  leader.  Fillmore,  he  said,  would  have  been 
the  first  choice  of  Louisiana,  and  Webster,  whom  he 
eulogizes  in  a  few  apt  phrases,  the  second.  But  he 
praises  Scott  without  fulsomeness,  and  in  the  cam 
paign  that  followed  he  did  his  best  in  the  losing  fight 
for  him.  As  the  campaign  progressed,  in  September, 
he  stumped  the  state  for  the  General.  As  one  paper 
put  it, '  "  the  gentle,  persuasive,  bird-like  notes  of  that 
oratorical  siren,  J.  P.  Benjamin  [enchained]  the  wild 
cattle  that  roam  the  prairies  of  Opelousas." 

The  constitutional  convention  met  at  Baton  Rouge 
on  July  5th.  Though  the  changes  it  made  were  in 
many  cases  radical,  it  was  not  so  important  a  body,  and 
excited  less  popular  interest  than  the  previous  con 
vention.  In  1845  it  had  taken  nearly  five  months  to 
patch  up  a  constitution  which  was  not  so  very  differ 
ent  from  the  one  it  replaced  ;  which  was  full  of  com- 

»,  Delta,  Sept.  19 ;  also  9. 


FEOM  STATE  POLITICS  TO  SENATE     105 

promises  that  satisfied  no  one  ;  and  which  lasted  but 
seven  years.  In  1 852  it  took  less  than  a  mouth — from 
July  5th  to  July  31st — to  enact  a  constitution  in 
which  one  can  easily  count  twelve  or  fifteen  changes 
of  capital  importance.  When  such  an  amount  of 
work  was  accomplished  in  the  time  named,  it  is  al 
most  superfluous  to  remark  that  there  was  little  de 
bate  ;  the  ideal  of  this  body  was  to  do  with  certainty 
and  celerity  those  things  upon  which  the  majority 
were  agreed.  Except  for  special  reasons,  speeches 
were  rigidly  limited  to  half  an  hour.  Article  after 
article  of  the  old  constitution,  involving  no  contro 
verted  points,  was  adopted  without  change.  With 
relentless  and  monotonous  frequency  the  majority 
voted  to  table  indefinitely  amendments  that  might 
excite  dispute  ;  and  Benjamin  voted  with,  and  was 
the  directing  spirit  of,  that  majority.1 

It  would  be  tedious  as  well  as  profitless  to  enumerate 
the  points  of  difference  between  the  constitutions,  but 
we  must  indicate  such  as  are  significant  of  a  change  of 
opinion  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Benjamin.  In  1845,  he 
who  had  advocated  appointment,  and  appointment  for 
life,  in  the  case  of  the  judges  of  the  supreme  court 
and  other  officers,  now  advocated,  and  carried  through, 
articles  providing  for  elective  judges  of  the  supreme 
court  (term,  ten  years)  and  of  district  courts ;  for 
an  elective  superintendent  of  public  instruction  ;  for 
elective  boards  and  commissions,  etc.  Similarly,  he 
voted  for  annual  sessions  of  the  legislature  ;  for  in 
creased  liberality  in  the  acquisition  of  citizenship  ; 
for  the  abolition  of  all  restrictions,  except  that  of  be- 

1  The  chief  source  for  the  facts  in  this  and  following  paragraphs 
is  the  Journal  of  the  Convention,  which  gives  no  debates. 


106  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

irig  a  l  i  free  white  male  citizen  over  twenty-one  years 
of  age,'7  imposed  upon  members  of  the  legislature. 
The  voter  could  now  acquire  the  suffrage  after  one 
year's  residence,  and  if  he  were  but  twenty -one  he 
was  as  eligible  to  the  senate  as  to  the  house.  In  1845 
the  governorship  seemed  so  precious  a  thing  in  the 
eyes  of  the  convention,  that  they  provided  that  the 
occupant  of  the  office  must  be  at  least  thirty-five  years 
of  age,  and  have  resided  in  the  state  at  least  fifteen 
years.  Mr.  Benjamin,  it  will  be  remembered,  then 
wanted  to  make  the  provision  still  more  conservative. 
Now  he  voted  for  a  provision  setting  the  age  at 
twenty-eight,  the  residence  at  four  years. 

All  these  are  striking  enough  by  themselves  to  bring 
upon  Mr.  Benjamin  the  facile  and  irrefutable  charge 
of  inconsistency.  There  is  something  more  singular 
still,  which  we  shall  leave  till  we  mention  two  or 
three  of  the  new  clauses  in  the  constitution. 

With  small  difficulty,  where  before  he  had  en 
countered  hopeless  opposition,  he  got  passed  a  clause 
providing  for  the  free  registration  of  voters  in  New 
Orleans — population  was  so  sparse  elsewhere  in  the 
state  as  to  render  such  a  law  of  little  use.  He  had 
learned  that  there  could  be  as  great  folly  in  throttling 
corporations  as  in  permitting  South  Sea  Bubbles  or 
wild-cat  banks.  He  therefore  favored  liberal  modi 
fications  of  the  existing  provisions  on  banks  and  cor 
porations,  and  himself  was  chiefly  instrumental  in 
having  inserted  a  special  clause  legalizing  the  Citizens' 
Bank  and  the  acts  already  passed  in  support  of  it. 
After  the  long  depression  in  the  train  of  the  great 
panics  that  had  stopped  all  commercial  enterprise,  the 
Southern  states  in  particular  were  beginning  to  feel  a 


FROM  STATE  POLITICS  TO  SENATE     107 

revival  of  business  prosperity,  and  a  consequent  re 
vival  of  projects,  often  all  too  ambitious,  for  the  build 
ing  of  railways  and  other  internal  improvements.  In 
this  current  enthusiasm  Benjamin  shared,  and  so 
united  promptly  and  effectively  with  those  who  helped 
to  enact  a  whole  new  section  (Articles  130-134)  in  the 
constitution,  providing  for  the  fostering  of  internal 
improvements,  with  an  elective  board  to  administer 
the  same. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  remind  any  one  of  Mr. 
Beuj amines  opinion  on  the  proposition  to  adopt  the 
Federal  basis  of  representation.  With  simple  logic  and 
statement  of  the  facts  so  undisguised  and  straight 
forward  as  to  be  overwhelmingly  convincing,  he  had, 
in  1845, l  denounced  the  principle  of  slave  representa 
tion  in  any  form  as  unjust  and  iniquitous.  The  ques 
tion  of  the  basis  of  representation  was,  naturally,  an 
interesting  one  in  the  new  convention,  one  of  the  few, 
in  fact,  which  brought  on  warm  debate.  And  Mr. 
Benjamin  voted  and  spoke  in  favor  of  basing  repre 
sentation  on  the  total  population,  slaves  and  all.1 
Indeed,  whether  justly  or  not,  the  opposition  papers 
accuse  him  of  being  the  person  responsible  for  the 
final  adoption  of  that  basis,  of  exerting  his  eloquence 
to  persuade  and  his  sarcasm  to  drive  reluctant  mem 
bers  to  vote  for  this  most  distasteful  measure.  And 
"  after  adjournment,  Mr.  Benjamin  mollifies  the  sub 
jects  of  his  sarcasm  by  his  pleasant  smile,  his  silvery 
laughter,  or — greatest  concession — allows  them  to  ex 
cel  him  in  a  game  of  ten-pins  ! ' ' 

There  was,  of  course,  opposition  in  the  convention, 
though  far  less  than  one  would  have  supposed.     From 

1  Journal,  p.  65 ;  Delta,  July  27,  29,  and  Aug.  3. 


108  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

the  nature  of  the  question  involved,  however,  this  op 
position  was  bitter,  and  the  denunciation  in  the  press 
fierce.  Ten  of  the  city  delegation  voted  against  the 
total  population  basis,  including  Eandell  Hunt  and 
E.  A.  Bradford,  soon  to  become  Benjamin's  partner. 
The  city  press  generally,  Whig  or  Democratic,  dis 
liked  the  provision  ;  some  gulped,  made  faces,  and 
swallowed  it ;  some  were  courageous  enough  to  de 
nounce  it.  The  True  Delta,  in  particular,  always  dar 
ing  to  the  point  of  intolerable  insolence  and  not  over- 
nice  in  its  u  distinction  of  epitaphs,"  returned  to  the 
assault  again  and  again.  The  practical  eifect  of  the 
provision  can  be  very  clearly  appreciated  when  one 
examines  the  census.  To  keep  in  touch  w^ith  the 
opinion  of  the  time,  we  may  as  well  use  the  figures 
given  by  the  True  Delta 1  with  its  comment. 

The  seven  parishes  of  West  Baton  Eouge,  St. 
Charles,  West  Feliciana,  Pointe  Coupee,  Concordia, 
Tensas,  and  Madison  (alluvial  lands,  chiefly  produc 
ing  cotton)  had  a  white  population  of  11,264,  a 
negro  population  of  47,373,  making  a  total  of  58,637. 
The  thirteen  parishes  of  Livingstone,  St.  Helena, 
Washington,  Sabine,  Jackson,  Bienville,  Franklin, 
Caldwell,  Union,  Catahoula,  Calcasieu,  St.  Bernard 
and  Yermillion  (chiefly  upland  pine  country)  had  a 
white  population  of  35,681,  a  negro  population  of 
23,819,  making  a  total  of  59,500.  "By  this  most 
atrocious  arrangement,  11,264  residents  of  seven 
parishes  are  clothed  with  as  much  political  power  as 
35,681  residents  of  thirteen  parishes  among  the  most 
prosperous  of  the  state."  This  should  make  it  clear 
how  unequal  and  unjust  in  its  operation  would  be  the 

1  Aug.  8 ;  also  Sept.  9  and  11. 


FEOM  STATE  POLITICS  TO  SENATE     109 

provision  now  sanctioned  by  the  state  constitution. 
As  I  have  noted  elsewhere,  such  parishes  as  Concordia 
and  Tensas  had  an  enormous  preponderance  of  slaves, 
who  formed  a  minority  in  such  parishes  as  Union  or 
Sabine.  The  slave  owner  was  given  a  tremendous 
political  advantage.  "The  one  hundred  negro  slaves 
of  J.  P.  Benjamin,  of  Plaquemines,  are  made  just  as 
good  as  one  hundred  citizens." 

In  the  abstract,  one  cannot  defend  the  constitution 
of  1852.  The  best  that  can  be  said  for  it,  I  think,  is 
that  its  makers  recognized  its  shortcomings  and  pro 
vided  for  a  much  more  rapid  process  of  amendment 
than  had  prevailed.  It  has,  however,  one  merit 
which  may  be  overlooked  ;  though  its  ends  be  not 
wise,  it  at  least  has  the  courage  to  seek  them  by  direct 
means,  and  to  declare  itself  for  a  principle.  And 
when  we  remember  that  this  was  a  period  of  growing 
hysteria  on  the  slavery  question  ;  that  Louisiana,  once 
liberal  in  her  encouragement  of  the  enfranchisement 
of  slaves,  but  now  frenzied  by  incessant  Abolition 
agitation  at  the  North,  was  passing  dracouic  laws  in 
her  black  code  ;  that  even  in  the  convention  itself 
members  not  to  be  classed  as  radical  in  their  views 
proposed  articles  absolutely  prohibiting  any  master 
from  freeing  a  slave  unless  said  slave  were  deported 
from  the  state,  and  absolutely  prohibiting  free  negroes 
from  entering  the  state,  under  penalty  of  forfeiture  of 
their  freedom, ' — when  we  remember  all  this,  it  should 
not  be  difficult  for  any  person  endowed  with  common 
knowledge  of  and  sympathy  with  man  as  he  is,  to 
understand  the  impulses  that  led  to  the  adoption  of 
that  constitution,  and  perhaps  to  justify  them  on  the 

1  Journal,  p.  26. 


110  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

principle  of  the  inherent  tendency  to  defend  our  own 
property  by  any  and  all  means. 

The  truth  is,  that  there  was  some  foundation  for  the 
charge  made  against  the  Whig  leaders,  and  particu 
larly  against  Benjamin,  in  regard  to  this  constitution. 
They  boasted,  it  was  said,  that  the  instrument  would 
guarantee  Whig  control  in  Louisiana  at  least  for  the 
next  generation.  The  Whigs  had  come  to  be  regarded 
as  conservatives,  as  the  party  in  favor  of  safeguarding 
existing  rights,  privileges,  and  conditions,  North  as  well 
as  South.  A  very  large  proportion  of  the  wealthy 
and  prominent  families  of  the  state  were  Whigs,  who 
regarded  the  Democrats  as  certainly  dangerous  in 
politics,  and  quite  as  certainly  not  fit  to  associate  with 
them  on  an  equal  footing  in  society.  These  people 
were,  in  the  main,  still  the  largest  owners  of  slaves. 
And  a  provision  which  gave  them  representation  for 
their  slaves  ought,  in  the  nature  of  things,  to  have  se 
cured  their  influence  over  the  affairs  of  the  state. 

But  the  causes  that  brought  about  the  disintegration 
of  the  Whig  party  as  a  national  force  were  quite  be 
yond  the  control  of  Louisiana  politicians,  and  those 
causes  were  already  at  work.  The  death  was  to  be  a 
lingering  one  ;  indeed,  the  exact  instant  of  final  dis 
solution  can  scarce  be  detected  : 

"  As  virtuous  men  pass  mildly  away, 
And  whisper  to  their  souls  to  go  ; 
Whilst  some  of  their  sad  friends  do  say, 
1  Now  his  breath  goes,'  and  some  say,  '  No,'  " 

The  party  may  be  said  to  have  been  really  in 
articulo  mortis  when  Scott  met  defeat  in  the  autumn  of 
this  same  year.  And  the  provisions  of  the  Louisiana 


FEOM  STATE  POLITICS  TO  SENATE     111 

constitution  of  1852  could  not  consolidate  the  Whig 
party  in  that  state  when  the  national  organization  was 
destroyed. 

There  is  no  denying  Benjamin's  radical  change  of 
front ;  but  though  his  motives  may  have  been  mis 
taken,  it  would  certainly  be  nothing  but  narrow 
prejudice  to  condemn  him  without  at  least  attempting 
to  discover  those  motives.  The  True  Delta,  more  apt 
in  criticism  than  profound  or  just,  baldly  declares  1 
that  Mr.  Benjamin's  sole  motive  was  a  small  and  al 
most  selfish  one.  In  1845,  it  states,  he  was  a  lawyer 
owning  no  slaves  j  in  1852  he  was  a  sugar  planter,  and  a 
large  slave-owner.  The  facts  are  not  exact,  and  the  sug 
gestion  is  little  short  of  puerile  malignity.  Unfor 
tunately,  with  his  habitual  indifference  to  journalistic 
censures,  Mr.  Benjamin,  so  far  as  I  can  discover, 
vouchsafed  no  explanation.  Under  such  circum 
stances,  I  feel  justified  in  suggesting  one  which  seems 
to  me  reasonable. 

Unquestionably,  he  still  held  the  views  expressed  in 
1845,  viz. ,  that  a  conflict  was  fast  approaching  between 
slavery  and  Abolition,  and  that  in  preparation  for  this 
conflict  a  well-knit  Southern  party  must  be  formed. 
He  repeats  this  idea,  we  shall  see,  in  1855.  His  legal 
training  taught  him  to  seek,  if  possible,  a  peaceful 
solution  of  the  problem  rather  than  allow  matters  to 
come  to  a  crisis.  Even  his  defeated  opponents  fre 
quently  bore  evidence,  on  other  occasions,  to  the  fact 
that  he  was  not  an  unscrupulous  antagonist,  not  a 
partisan  who  would  attain  his  own  ends  by  trampling 
upon  others  ;  but  that  he  was  preeminently  tactful  and 
conciliatory.  His  marked  partisanship  in  this  con- 

1  Sept.  11. 


112  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

vention  and  in  the  political  campaign  was  com 
mented  on  because  it  was  unusual.  Was  it  not  due 
to  his  determination  to  make  one  final  and  desperate 
effort  in  behalf  of  his  chosen  principles  f  If  he  could 
gain  a  victory  for  the  Whigs,  and  if  they,  as  a  national 
party,  should  make  up  their  minds  to  stand  by  the 
South,  certainly  a  critical  point  would  have  been 
gained.  He  could  not  foresee  that  the  great  party 
would  fail  so  utterly  to  respond  to  the  needs  of  the 
hour,  to  change  with  the  changing  times.  He  himself 
was  too  clear-headed,  too  rational  to  cling  with  des 
peration  to  principles  that  were  no  longer,  to  use  a 
recent  phrase,  "live  issues."  Accordingly,  he  had 
yielded  with  the  majority  of  his  party  in  Louisiana  to 
the  popular  demand  for  democratic  or  liberal  meas 
ures,  though  his  own  choice  would  certainly  have  been 
different.  He  could  not  carry  the  Northern  wing  of 
the  party  into  the  policies  which  he  thought  might 
have  given  it  a  chance  for  continued  prosperity,  a  new 
lease  of  life. 


CHAPTER  V 

COMMEECIAL  INTERESTS 

THE  year  1852  was  not  to  pass  without  still  further 
political  excitement  for  Mr.  Benjamin.  After  the 
election  to  the  United  States  Senate,  the  session  of 
the  legislature,  the  election  for  the  convention,  service 
in  that  convention,  the  Presidential  campaign,  and 
the  election  in  November  to  ratify  the  constitution, 
there  came,  to  cap  the  climax,  a  determined  and 
alarming  assault  upon  the  validity  of  his  election  as  sen 
ator.  As  early  as  November  6th,  one  of  the  city  papers 
remarked  : l  "  The  friends  of  a  certain  distinguished 
gentleman,  who  is  known  to  aspire  to  a  seat  in  the 
Federal  Senate,  are  said  to  speak  of  the  probability  of 
Mr.  J.  P.  Benjamin's  being  unseated. " 

It  is  highly  probable  that  this  attempt  to  unseat 
Benjamin  was  at  least  partly  the  natural  outcome  of  the 
hard  feeling  which  was  engendered  by  the  campaign 
of  the  spring  and  summer,  and  especially  by  his 
somewhat  ruthless  partisanship.  As  it  is  an  interest 
ing  example  of  the  extremes  to  which  party  feeling 
and  trickery  can  go,  the  case  is  worth  reviewing. 
Even  though  they  must  have  known  that  the  attempt 
could  not  succeed,  the  enemies  of  Mr.  Benjamin  mani 
fested  an  unholy  joy  at  the  prospect  of  his  being 
"  hoist  with  his  own  petard"— the  petard  in  this  case 
being  the  constitution  of  1852,  said  to  be  of  his  manu- 
iacture. 

1  True  Delta. 


114  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

The  grounds  on  which  Benjamin's  election  was 
asserted  to  be  illegal  and  void  involved  a  very  subtle 
quibble  in  constitutional  law.  Acting  under  the  man 
date  of  the  constitution  of  1845,  the  General  Assembly 
of  1846  had  passed  a  law  relative  to  the  election  of 
United  States  senators,  and  this  law  was  still  in  force. 
It  provided  that,  on  the  first  Monday  following  the 
meeting  of  the  legislature  (January),  in  the  session 
thereof  commencing  in  the  year  in  which  the  term  of 
office  of  the  senator  or  senators  would  expire,  the  two 
houses  should  meet  and  proceed  to  the  election. 

Since  the  Louisiana  legislature  convened  biennially, 
in  the  even  years,  '46,  '48,  '50,  '52,  and  as  the 
terms  of  senators  always  expire  in  the  odd  years,  no 
session  of  the  legislature  i '  commencing  in  the  year  in 
which  the  term  of  any  senator  or  senators"  would 
expire  could  ever  occur,  unless  such  session  should 
chance  to  be  an  extra  or  special  one.  Having  care 
fully  provided  for  what,  in  all  human  probability, 
would  never  happen,  the  law  very  wisely  proceeded  to 
put  in  the  one  clause  that  was  worth  all  the  rest,  pre 
scribing  that,  in  case  a  session  of  the  legislature  should 
not  occur  in  the  same  year,  the  election  should  take 
place  in  "  the  year  next  preceding."  Under  this  pro 
vision  Benjamin  had  been  duly  chosen  in  January, 
1.852. 

But  the  same  legislature  which  elected  him,  and 
which  had  a  Whig  majority,  sent  forth  the  call  for 
the  constitutional  convention.  That  convention,  still 
dominated  by  the  Whigs,  enacted  a  new  constitution, 
one  of  whose  provisions  was  for  annual  sessions  of  the 
legislature,  meeting,  as  before,  in  January.  The  con 
stitution  had  been  ratified  by  the  people  ;  it  was  to  go 


COMMEECIAL  INTEKESTS  115 

into  effect  immediately,  allowing  only  time  for  new 
elections.  Throughout  the  summer,  however,  and  in 
the  November  elections,  the  Whigs  had  been  losing 
ground,  until  finally,  at  the  election  for  members  of 
the  new  legislature  which  was  to  assemble  in  January, 
1853,  the  Democrats  found  themselves  secure  in  the 
lower  house  of  that  body.  The  term  of  Solomon  W. 
Downs,  whom  Benjamin  had  been  expected  to  suc 
ceed,  expired  on  March  4,  1853.  Here  was  a  law 
commanding  that  the  election  for  senator  should  be 
held  in  the  same  year  in  which  the  senatorial  term 
expired.  Here  was  a  session  of  the  legislature — and 
a  Democratic  House — in  the  same  year  in  which  one 
of  the  two  Democratic  senators  was  to  be  replaced — 
by  a  Whig  ?  or  by  a  Democrat  ? 

The  temptation  was  far  too  strong  for  the  average 
politician.  Before  the  legislature  met,  the  partisan 
press  discussed  the  pros  and  cons ;  when  it  did  as 
semble,  the  Democratic  caucus  hesitated  somewhat, 
but  finally  took  up  the  matter,  and  decided  by  a  vote 
of  thirty-nine  to  fifteen  that  they  would  bring  up  the 
senatorial  election,  and  support  it  as  a  party  measure. 
According  to  the  program,  on  the  24th  of  January,  a 
Democratic  member  from  New  Orleans  introduced  a 
joint  resolution,  that  the  House,  with  the  assent  of  the 
Senate,  proceed  to  an  election  for  senator  to  succeed 
Downs,  thus  treating  Benjamin's  election  as  absolutely 
null  and  void.  There  was  a  postponement  of  action, 
however  ;  then  the  motion  was  lost ;  then  a  motion  to 
reconsider  was  rushed  through  in  a  thin  house  by  one 
vote.  Meanwhile,  the  Senate,  still  Whig,  sent  the 
resolution  to  the  Judiciary  Committee,  and  ordered 
five  thousand  copies  of  their  adverse  report  printed. 


116  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

The  disgraceful  episode  was  closed,  so  far  as  the  leg 
islature  was  concerned,  by  an  adverse  vote  on  Feb 
ruary  10th.  But  it  had  been  a  hot  fight,  in  and  out 
of  both  houses.  The  report  of  the  Senate  Judiciary 
Committee  had  been  freely  circulated  as  a  Whig 
document,  and  Whig  members  of  the  legislature  had 
done  their  best  to  influence  public  opinion  in  favor  of 
the  validity  of  Benjamin's  election.  One  of  the  ablest 
of  these  defenses  is  that  by  T.  G.  Hunt,  brother  of 
Kandell,  in  the  Picayune  of  February  6th.  And  the 
Democrats  had  held  mass  meetings  in  New  Orleans 
and  in  Baton  Eouge,  with  the  object,  so  said  the  Whig 
press,  of  intimidating  the  General  Assembly  ;  while  the 
Democratic  or  opposition  press  teemed  with  arguments, 
so-called  constitutional,  against  Benjamin's  right  to 
his  seat,  and  insinuations  of  the  wildest  nature  regard 
ing  him  personally.  Thus  the  True  Delta  suggests 
that  there  are  some  doubts  whether  Benjamin,  although 
he  exhibited  such  an  l  i  intolerant  and  restrictive  spirit 
in  relation  to  adopted  citizens,"  has  himself  complied 
with  all  the  formalities  necessary  to  naturalization. 
And  one  writer,  usurping  the  name  of  "John  Hamp- 
den,"  filled  columns  in  several  issues  of  that  jour 
nal  urging  all  the  specious  quasi-constitutional  ar 
guments  against  Benjamin,  and  revealing  his  own 
want  of  faith  in  his  argument  by  dark  hints  that  the 
senator's  election  was  the  result  of  deep  and  sinister 
Whig  designs,  born  of  amazing  prescience  that  the 
party  would  lose  in  the  elections  of  1852,  and  that 
his  only  chance  would  be  in  the  legislature  of  that 
year. 

For  the  first  time,  we  find  John  Slidell,  who  was  a 
brother  of  Thomas  Slidell,  and  had  always  been  a 


COMMEECIAL  INTEEESTS  117 

Democrat,  acting  as  Benjamin's  friend.  The  fight 
was  lost  in  the  legislature,  but  a  forlorn  hope  of  Dem 
ocrats  carried  it  still  further.  Some  of  them  no  doubt 
were  acting  conscientiously,  being  really  confused  by 
the  speciousness  of  the  argument  advanced.  But  the 
real  animus  of  the  attempt  to  unseat  Mr.  Benjamin 
was  narrow  partisanship.  In  the  United  States  Senate 
Pierre  Soule,  on  March  7th,  presented  a  petition 
signed  by  twenty  members  of  the  legislature,  protest 
ing  against  Benjamin's  taking  his  seat,  on  the  ground 
of  his  having  been  illegally  chosen,  and  of  his  being 
a  native  of  the  Island  of  St.  Thomas.  Benjamin  had 
already  been  sworn  in,  without  opposition,  on  March 
4th.  The  petition  was  formally  presented  by  Soule, 
but  to  his  honor  be  it  said,  he  distinctly  stated  that 
he  would  do  no  more  than  this,  and  it  was  laid  on 
the  table.1 

It  was  not  long  after  this  that  the  Democratic  legis 
lature  of  Louisiana  had  the  privilege  of  electing  a 
senator.  Soule  was  despatched  as  American  envoy  to 
Spain,  and  Benjamin's  friend,  John  Slidell,  was  chosen 
to  fill  the  vacant  place  in  the  Senate.  Though  al 
most  accidental,  this  replacing  of  Soule"  by  Slidell 
must  be  credited  with  not  a  little  influence  on  Benja 
min's  subsequent  political  career.  He  had  known 
Slidell  for  years,  of  course,  but  had  never  been  so 
intimately  associated  with  him.  And  though  he  was 
a  man  of  too  much  intelligence  and  character  to  be 
dominated  by  another,  he  was  unquestionably  influ 
enced  by  his  associates,  as  one  would  expect  from  a 


1  True  Delta,  Jan.  11,  13-16,  19-23,  25-29,  Feb.  1,  3,   8-11,    13 
and  16 ;  Picayune,  Jan.  25,  Feb.  4,  6,  8,  9,  11, 13,  March  17  aud  18. 


118  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

disposition  rather  impressionable,  given  to  enthusi 
asms,  above  all,  fond  of  being  on  good  terms  with  his 
fellows.  From  this  time  on  we  find  the  names  of  Ben 
jamin  and  Slidell  almost  constantly  associated  in  the 
opposition  press. 

Mr.  Slidell  was  a  man  of  unquestioned  ability  as  a 
politician,  and  his  personality,  though  neither  fasci 
nating  by  its  urbanity,  like  that  of  Benjamin  himself, 
nor  commanding  respect  by  its  fire  and  earnestness 
and  gentleness  combined,  like  that  of  Jefferson  Davis, 
as  his  admirers  saw  him,  was  yet  a  strong  one.  As  a 
lawyer  and  as  a  speaker,  he  was  much  inferior  ;  as  a 
political  tactician,  he  was  probably  superior  to  Mr. 
Benjamin.  His  methods  aroused  much  suspicion  al 
most  always  among  the  Whigs  of  his  state ;  and  his 
name  was  frequently  connected  with  transactions  that 
induced  the  most  bitter  feeling,  and  brought  upon  him 
the  most  violent  denunciations.  It  is  unfortunate 
that  in  much  of  this  Benjamin's  name  is  put  beside 
that  of  Slidell ;  but  it  is  a  fact  that,  at  the  same 
time,  no  charges  of  corrupt  practice  are  made  against 
Mr.  Benjamin,  and  that  those  which  are  uttered 
have  no  surer  foundation  than  the  partisanship  of  a 
very  vituperative  press. 

The  circumstances  of  Mr.  Benjamin's  entrance  into 
the  Senate,  in  a  contested  seat  at  a  time  when  there  was 
still  some  doubt  as  to  the  political  complexion  of  that 
body,  at  first  attracted  pretty  general  attention  to 
him.  His  reputation  as  a  lawyer  and  as  a  debater, 
too,  had  preceded  him,  while  it  was  generally  known 
that  President  Pierce  had -offered  him  a  seat  on  the 
Supreme  Court,  which  he  declined,  not  only  because 
he  preferred  the  more  active  life  in  politics  but  prob- 


COMMEECIAL  INTEEESTS  119 

ably  also  because  lie  needed  for  his  family  more  money 
than  a  Supreme  Court  Justice  received.  During  his 
first  two  years  in  the  Senate  there  is  little  of  importance 
sufficient  to  warrant  extended  comment.  He  was  work 
ing  hard  at  the  time,  and  no  careful  survey  of  the 
Congressional  Globe  for  those  years  is  needed  to  con 
vince  one  of  his  assiduity.  But  the  presenting  of  pe 
titions  and  local  bills  is  a  matter  in  which  the  public  of 
two  generations  later  can  hardly  feel  a  keen  interest. 
Then,  too,  Benjamin  was  as  yet  acting  constantly  and 
loyally  with  the  dwindling  Whig  party  during  a  Dem 
ocratic  administration,  so  that  little  opportunity  of 
fered  itself  for  a  conspicuous  share  in  the  making  of 
laws.  He  delivered  several  speeches,  but  none  of  first- 
rate  ability,  though  they  must  have  been  sufficient  to 
establish  his  reputation  as  a  ready  debater,  and  to 
prepare  for  greater  efforts. 

When  he  went  to  Washington,  he  did  not  lose  touch 
with  local  affairs.  Mrs.  Benjamin,  who  was  always 
rather  French  than  American  in  her  tastes  and  inter 
ests,  moved  to  France  permanently,  so  that  there  was 
no  opportunity  for  him  to  establish  a  home  at  the 
capital.  He  was  compelled  to  relinquish  his  hold  as  a 
sugar  planter,  since  attendance  in  the  Senate,  his 
practice,  and  numerous  other  occupations,  added  to 
the  actual  misfortunes  of  the  overflow,  were  enough  to 
render  it  impossible  for  him  to  attempt  to  continue  in 
a  business  so  notoriously  precarious.  But  though  thus 
obliged  to  abandon  one  project  dear  to  his  heart, 
there  were  many  others,  of  great  utility  for  the  state, 
to  which  his  devotion  was  hardly  relaxed  by  political 
exigencies.  The  most  notable  of  these  were  the  Te- 
huantepec  Eailroad  and  the  Jackson  Bailroad. 


120  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

The  dream  of  trans- isthmian  communication,  now 
so  near  the  most  perfect  realization,  was  never  so 
vivid,  so  truly  oriental  in  its  exuberance,  as  during  the 
middle  of  the  century  which  has  just  closed.  Then 
the  imaginations  of  all  people,  even  the  Mexicans, 
were  fired  by  ideas  and  predictions  and  statements 
about  railways  which  soon  were  proved  to  be  utterly 
fanciful  and  unwarranted.  The  facility  of  organizing 
companies  was  taken  as  an  indication  of  the  ease  with 
which  roads  could  be  constructed.  With  more  than 
the  impracticability  and  enthusiasm  of  Alnaschar,  the 
world  dreamed  of  railways  which  it  would  have  taken  a 
century  to  build  ;  and  the  bewilderment  and  ruin  were 
proportionately  greater  when  the  crash  came.  Diffi 
cult  as  were  the  problems  of  construction,  obtaining 
materials  and  equipment,  and  remunerative  operation, 
in  the  United  States,  they  were  as  nothing  compared 
to  those  to  be  solved  in  southern  Mexico.  And 
yet  men  of  intelligence  spoke  of  a  railway  across  the 
almost  unknown,  unsurveyed  wilds  of  Vera  Cruz  and 
Oajaca  as  if  they  expected  to  make  a  journey  on  it 
next  week.  It  was  very  near  the  end  of  the  century 
before  the  first  locomotive  crawled  over  a  line  similar 
to  that  of  which  Mr.  Benjamin  and  his  friends  spoke 
with  such  great  confidence  in  1850.  For  this  man, 
with  all  of  his  practical  sense  and  his  experience,  was 
often  unaccountably  sanguine,  too  ready  to  believe 
what  he  wished  very  much  to  believe,  and  apt  to  take 
on  trust  statements  which  he  afterward  discovered, 
by  personal  investigation,  to  be  quite  unreliable. 

It  was  in  the  fall  of  1849  and  the  spring  of  1850  that 
the  scheme  of  the  Tehuantepec  Eailroad  began  to  take 
definite  shape  as  a  matter  in  which  the  citizens  of  New 


COMMEECIAL  INTEEESTS  121 

Orleans  were  interested.1  But  there  had  been  eight 
years  of  deferred  hope  before  that.  In  1842  (March 
1st)  Santa  Anna,  then  nominally  president  and  really 
dictator  of  Mexico,  issued  a  decree  giving  to  Don 
Jose  Garay,  a  citizen  of  Mexico,  the  exclusive  right  to 
effect  inter-oceanic  communication  across  the  Isthmus 
of  Tehuautepec.  The  grant 2  was  very  generous  in  its 
terms,  permitting  him  to  open  a  canal,  or  to  build 
first  a  carriage  road  and  then  a  railway.  The  grantee 
or  his  assigns  were  to  have  protection  in  all  their 
rights  as  well  as  aid  in  the  work,  and  the  privilege 
of  fixing  tolls  for  fifty  years  on  the  canal  or  railway. 
All  vacant  land,  to  the  extent  of  ten  leagues  on  both 
sides  of  the  proposed  route,  went  to  Garay.  In 
return,  he  was  to  agree  that  the  canal  or  railway  was 
to  be  neutral ;  that  the  work  on  the  line  should  begin 
within  two  years  after  the  completion  of  the  prelimi 
nary  survey  ;  and  that  any  colonists  introduced  to  peo 
ple  the  land  granted  to  him  should  become  citizens  of 
Mexico. 

Garay  seems  to  have  been  what  we,  in  the  days  of 
Hooleyism,  should  call  a  "  promoter,"  having  neither 
the  means,  nor  perhaps  the  intention  of  undertaking 
the  work  of  railway  building  himself.  But  the  chronic 
disturbance  in  Mexican  politics  encouraged  him  to 
make  a  show  of  beginning,  in  the  hope,  probably,  of 
obtaining  further  concessions.  He  did  succeed  in  ac 
complishing  this  object,  and  from  time  to  time  secured 
extensions  of  the  period  of  his  grant.  In  December, 

1  Newspapers  of  1850-1852  are  filled  with  items  ;  the  most  im 
portant,  as  giving  a  full  history  of  the  matter,  are  the  Delta  and 
Picayune  of  Aug.  9,  1851. 

3  True  Delta,  July  31,  1851. 


122  JTJDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

1843,  during  one  of  the  kaleidoscopic  reappearances 
of  Santa  Anna,  the  date  for  commencing  work  on 
the  Isthmus  was  extended  from  July  1,  1844,  to 
July  1,  1845,  some  sort  of  a  survey  having  meanwhile 
been  accomplished,  though  so  carelessly  that  no  port 
had  been  definitely  selected  on  either  side  of  the 
Isthmus  for  the  terminus  of  a  railway  that  certainly 
could  not  live  without  ports. 

The  approaching  difficulties  with  the  United  States 
furnished  Garay  with  still  another  excuse  for  seeking 
an  extension  of  the  period  within  which  he  must  begin 
actual  work.  In  June,  1845,  just  before  the  time  set 
would  have  expired,  he  sought  another  extension, 
with  still  further  privileges.  The  lower  house  of  Con 
gress  considered  his  appeal  approvingly,  and  passed  a 
law,  which  was  then  sent  up  to  the  Senate.  There  it 
had  been  favorably  reported  from  a  committee,  and 
was  on  the  eve  of  being  acted  on,  when,  to  quote  Mr. 
Benjamin's  report,1  "  there  occurred  one  of  those 
events  unfortunately  too  frequent  in  the  history  of  our 
neighboring  republic.  The  administration  of  Praedes 
was  attacked  and  subverted  by  Mariano  de  Salas,  at  the 
head  of  an  armed  force."  In  other  words,  Praedes 
had  lost  his  hold  on  the  "  army,"  Salas  having  bought 
enough  of  the  l  i  soldiers ' '  to  make  himself  dictator, 
which  he  proceeded  to  do.  He  was  something  of 
a  benevolent  despot,  introducing  various  reforms,  per 
mitting  liberty  of  the  press,  etc. '  He  was  certainly 
benevolent  toward  the  Tehuantepec  scheme.  Says 
Mr.  Benjamin  again:  "Whilst  Salas  was  thus  exer 
cising,  de  facto,  the  supreme  power  of  the  government ; 
whilst  his  dictatorship  was  thus  unquestioned,  his  at- 

1  Delta,  Aug.  9,  1851. 


COMMEECIAL  INTERESTS  123 

tention  was  called  to  the  law  which  was  on  the  eve  of 
being  passed  when  the  Congress  was  dissolved  j  and 
after  examination  of  the  subject,  he  promulgated  his 
decree  of  the  5th  of  November,  1846,  which  is  a  copy 
of  the  law  that  had  passed  the  Mexican  House  of  Rep 
resentatives  and  the  committee  of  the  Mexican  Senate. 

"By  the  terms  of  this  decree,  the  delay  of  com 
mencing  the  works  on  the  Isthmus  was  prolonged  to 
the  5th  of  November,  1848.  The  work  was  actually 
commenced  prior  to  that  date,  as  is  established  by  the 
official  reports  of  the  Mexican  authorities  on  the 
Isthmus." 

The  validity  of  the  grant,  endorsed  by  so  many  of 
the  half-dozen  administrations  which  had  in  turn  en 
joyed  a  precarious  existence  since  1842,  certainly 
should  have  been  beyond  question,  however  prejudicial 
it  may  have  been  to  the  best  interests  of  the  country  ; 
however  outrageous  in  its  disregard  of  public  policy  ; 
however  doubtful  may  have  been  the  means  used 
to  secure  such  a  public  franchise.  Its  force  was  still 
further  recognized,  directly  and  indirectly,  by  subse 
quent  administrations.  When  the  United  States  had 
taken  the  edge  off  its  keen  martial  appetite  at  the  ex 
pense  of  Mexico,  the  Polk  administration  sought  to 
secure  what  advantages  it  could  from  the  vanquished 
foe.  Unfortunately,  neither  the  direction  nor  the  im 
mediate  application  of  our  diplomacy  was  in  very 
able  hands,  and  so,  with  General  Scott  bickering 
with  Mr.  Trist,  and  Mr.  Trist  misunderstanding  Mr. 
Polk  and  finally  patching  up  a  treaty  without  any 
very  clear  right  to  do  so,  we  did  not  get  quite  all  we 
wanted.  In  regard  to  this  Tehuantepec  matter,  Mr. 
Trist  had  been  instructed  to  offer  fifteen  millions  of 


124  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

dollars  for  a  right  of  way  across  the  Isthmus.  The 
Mexican  commissioners  replied  that  "  Mexico  could 
not  treat  on  this  subject,  because  she  had  several 
years  before  made  a  grant  to  one  of  her  own  citizens, 
who  had  transferred  his  rights,  by  the  authorization 
of  the  Mexican  Government,  to  English  subjects,  of 
whose  rights  Mexico  could  not  dispose."  Therefore 
the  treaty  of  Guadalupe-Hidalgo  (1847)  was  concluded 
without  any  Tehuantepec  rights  for  us,  and  with  a 
most  positive  recognition  by  Mexico  of  the  grant  to 
Garay,  and  of  his  transfer  of  the  same  to  Messrs.  Man 
ning  and  Mackintosh,  a  firm  of  English  bankers  in 
the  City  of  Mexico. 

This  was  the  situation  of  affairs  when  the  United 
States  began  to  have  a  more  direct  interest  in  Tehuan 
tepec.  A  Mr.  P.  A.  Hargous,  who  was  really  a  Penn- 
sylvanian  by  birth  and  residence,  but  who  had  car 
ried  on  much  business  with  Mexico,  purchased  the 
Tehuantepec  rights,  known  as  the  Garay  grant,  from 
Manning  and  Mackintosh.  The  inside  history  of 
transactions  with  the  Latin  American  republics  is  al 
ways  more  interesting  than  the  outside ;  but  we  can 
here  catch  only  a  glimpse  of  the  inside,  and  cannot 
be  quite  sure  of  what  we  really  do  see.  However,  the 
gossip  of  New  Orleans  had  it,  that  Mr.  Hargous  paid 
only  $25,000  for  the  Garay  grant.  While  this  sum  is 
surely  a  great  underestimate,  it  is  also  certain  that  a 
shrewd  business  man  would  not  pay  any  very  large 
sum  for  privileges  that  first  Garay  and  then  the  English 
bankers  had  been  six  or  seven  years  trying  to  dis 
pose  of. 

Hargous,  like  Garay,  had  no  intention  of  undertak 
ing  actual  construction  himself.  He  had  business  con- 


COMMERCIAL  INTERESTS  125 

nections  and  acquaintances  in  New  Orleans.  He  came 
to  that  city  in  1850,  and  soon  had  ten  or  twelve  of  the 
more  enterprising  and  wealthy  citizens  interested  in 
Tehuantepec.  Mr.  Benjamin  was  the  most  conspicu 
ous  of  these,  the  one  who  was  almost  invariably  the 
spokesman  and  the  representative  in  the  perplexities 
which  were  to  envelop  the  Tehuantepec  Company.  It 
is  customary  to  speak  of  it  as  the  Tehuantepec  Com 
pany,  though  without  real  warrant.  When  those  who 
first  became  interested  sought  to  obtain  the  coopera 
tion  of  the  public,  and  Benjamin  issued  a  sort  of  mani 
festo  with  glowing  accounts  of  their  hopes,  their  first 
desire  was  to  become  incorporated,  so  that  they  might 
be  empowered  to  issue  and  sell  stock,  bonds,  etc.  To 
their  chagrin,  they  discovered  that  the  constitution  of 
1845  was  so  rigid  in  its  restrictions  that  no  suitable 
charter  could  be  had  without  the  special  action  of  the 
legislature.  It  was  nearly  two  years  before  its  next 
regular  session,  and  Mr.  Benjamin,  with  his  customary 
enthusiasm  and  energy,  thoroughly  enlisted  in  favor  of 
what  seemed  to  him  a  splendid  project,  headed  a  dele 
gation  to  Baton  Eouge  to  petition  Governor  Walker  to 
call  an  extra  session.  Not  seeing  wherein  the  expense 
to  the  public  would  be  justified,  that  magistrate  de 
clined  to  assist  Mr.  Benjamin  and  his  friends  in  this 
fashion.  The  would-be  incorporators,  nothing 
daunted,  formed  a  temporary  organization,  with  Ben 
jamin  as  Chairman,  and  Bernard  Fallon  as  Secretary. 
This  company,  unlike  the  previous  purchasers  of  the 
right  of  way  across  Tehuantepec,  seems  really  to  have 
been  in  earnest  in  its  desire  to  avail  itself  of  the  privi 
leges  acquired.  Mr.  Benjamin  was  certainly  very 
much  in  earnest  j  he  rightly  believed  that  the  posses- 


126  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

sion  of  a  railway,  with  good  harbors  at  each  end,  across 
the  one  hundred  and  sixty  or  seventy  miles  of  the  Isth 
mus  of  Tehuantepec  would  revolutionize  the  fast-grow 
ing  traffic  with  California  ;  would  give  command  of  the 
trade  of  the  East ;  and  that  New  Orleans  would  gain 
immensely  should  this  communication  be  opened.  He 
was  always  ready  to  take  advantage  of  an  opportunity 
to  explain  to  his  fellow  citizens  the  peculiar  bene 
fits  that  New  Orleans  could  hope  for  from  the  suc 
cessful  completion  of  this  undertaking.  In  a  speech 
before  the  Southwestern  Eailroad  Convention,  held  in 
that  city  in  January,  1852,  Benjamin  had  been  de 
scribing  the  prime  needs  of  the  South  in  the  matter 
of  railways,  the  most  important  of  which  was  the  route 
north  and  south  to  be  begun  by  the  Jackson  railway. 
He  continued,  "  This  straight  line  of  railroad  [the  Jack 
son,  or  what  is  now  known  as  the  Illinois  Central]  will 
stop  at  New  Orleans,  but  it  will  not  cease  there  as  a 
line  of  travel.  That  line  carries  us  straight  across 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the  narrow  neck  of  land  which 
divides  the  Pacific  from  the  Atlantic,  whereon  Nature 
has  bestowed  every  blessing  of  soil  and  climate,  where 
she  has  even  lowered  the  hills  as  if  purposely  to  point 
out  the  way  for  a  railroad ;  and  when  we  cross  this 
Isthmus,  this  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec — what  have  we 
before  us  ?  The  Eastern  World  !  Its  commerce  has 
been  the  bone  of  many  a  bloody  contest.  Its  com 
merce  makes  empires  of  the  countries  to  which  it  flows, 
and  when  they  are  deprived  of  it  they  are  as  empty 
bags,  useless,  valueless.  That  commerce  belongs  to 
New  Orleans  !  "  l 

Immediately  after   its  organization,   the  company 
1  Picayune,  Jan.  7,  1852. 


COMMEECIAL  INTEBESTS  127 

started  to  take  steps  to  secure  its  rights.  The  Mexican 
authorities  of  the  hour  were  applied  to  for  passports 
for  a  party  of  engineers  to  re-survey  the  route.  These 
were  readily  granted,  and  a  body  of  men,  under  Major 
Barnard,  an  army  officer  well  known  throughout  the 
lower  Mississippi  valley,  proceeded  to  the  gulf  side  of 
the  Isthmus,  and  went  to  work  on  it  immediately. 
Meanwhile,  application  was  made  to  the  Washington 
administration  to  secure  the  protection  of  the  United 
States,  and  to  ascertain  "  beyond  a  doubt  the  honest 
intention  of  Mexico  to  forward  this  great  enterprise," 
before  beginning  actual  labor. 

Webster,  at  that  time  Secretary  of  State,  under  Fill- 
more,  was  favorably  impressed  by  the  plans  as  pre 
sented  to  him  first  by  Hargous  and  then  by  Benjamin. 
Accordingly,  our  Minister  to  Mexico,  Mr.  Letcher, 
was  instructed  to  make  overtures  for  a  treaty  giving 
joint  protection  to  the  work.  The  American  proposals 
were  favorably  received  by  the  Mexican  President  and 
his  Cabinet,  and  a  treaty  was  put  in  form  by  them, 
subject  to  ratification  by  the  Senates  of  the  respective 
countries.  This  provisional  treaty  also  contained  a 
clause,  slightly  modifying  the  terms  of  the  Garay  grant, 
to  the  effect  that  tolls  were  to  be  regulated  by  joint 
control  of  the  two  governments, — not  by  the  grantees 
alone,  and  to  this  modification,  of  course,  the  consent 
of  the  grantees  was  to  be  obtained  before  the  ratifica 
tion. 

When  this  draft  treaty  reached  Washington,  the 
representatives  of  the  Tehuantepec  Company  were  in 
vited  to  examine  it,  and  found  that,  though  the  general 
tenor  of  the  document  was  entirely  satisfactory,  there 
were  certain  ambiguities,  to  remove  which  they  pro- 


128  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

posed  some  amendments.  The  treaty  then  went  back 
to  Mexico,  where  it  was  again  favorably  received — by 
a  brand  new  President  and  Cabinet — and  returned  to 
Washington  with  the  changes  desired  by  the  Te- 
huantepee  Company.  So  far,  all  had  gone  as  well 
as  could  be  wished.  Both  governments  seemed  of  one 
mind  in  the  determination  to  assist  in  the  great  proj  - 
ect.  And  even  the  most  suspicious  of  the  local  papers 
sheathed  their  rapiers  and  smiled  on  Benjamin,  while 
they  indulged  in  fantastic  predictions  of  the  gain  to 
New  Orleans  when  the  canal  or  railway  should  be 
completed.  The  friendly  journals  even  sent  special  cor 
respondents  with  the  Barnard  surveying  party,  from 
whom  we  find  long  letters  from  time  to  time. 

It  was  in  one  of  these  letters  that  the  public  first 
learned  what  the  directors  of  the  company  had  probably 
known  for  some  time ;  namely,  that  things  were  not 
safe  in  Mexico.  The  report  was  that  the  Mexican 
Senate,  after  one  of  those  violent  tornadoes  which  so 
frequently  and  unaccountably  changed  its  political 
complexion,  had  declared  the  Garay  grant  null  and 
void.  The  facts  were,  that  another  new  President, 
Arista,  and  his  advisers,  were  hostile  to  the  Tehuan- 
tepec  Company,  and  had  passed  a  law  through  Congress 
declaring  the  decree  of  Salas,  November  5,  1846,  ultra 
vires  and  hence  null  and  void  ;  indirectly,  this  would 
abrogate  the  grant  absolutely,  since  the  delay  author 
ized  by  Salas  was  all  that  stood  between  it  and  forfeit 
ure  on  the  ground  of  non-compliance  with  its  terms.1 

Almost  simultaneously  with  this  disquieting  news 
from  Mexico  comes  the  announcement  that  Letcher's 
treaty  has  gone  to  Washington  ;  that  Webster  has  in- 
1  Cf.  Delta,  April  12,  1851. 


COMMERCIAL  INTERESTS  129 

vited  the  company  (February  18,  1851)  to  inspect  it ; 
that  the  same  has  been  declared  satisfactory,  and  will 
be  at  once  ratified  by  the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 
But  the  Delta's  u correspondent"  with  the  Barnard 
expedition  writes  from  Tehuantepec  *  that  there  is  no 
doubt  the  Arista  faction  will  forfeit  the  grant ;  that 
there  is  great  excitement  on  the  Isthmus  ;  and  that,  as 
he  expresses  it  with  more  force  than  propriety,  "  in 
good  time,  h will  be  to  pay."  It  was  not  long,  in 
deed,  before  news  came  of  the  expulsion  of  Barnard 
and  his  party,  and  of  the  closing  of  those  ports  which 
a  friendly  administration  had  opened  to  admit  the  sup 
plies  and  materials  of  the  company. 

The  tone  of  the  New  Orleans  press  becomes  either 
less  hopeful,  or  altogether  hostile.  Losing  sight  of 
the  fact  that  Mr.  Benjamin  and  his  fellows  had  already 
expended  a  considerable  sum,  out  of  their  own 
pockets,  in  promoting  the  survey  ;  that  the  interests 
of  New  Orleans,  or  of  any  citizen  of  New  Orleans, 
certainly  could  not  be  injured,  and  might  be  greatly 
advanced  by  the  success  of  the  scheme,  the  papers 
declared  the  whole  thing  a  fraud.  Simply  because  he 
declined  to  take  the  public  into  his  confidence  on 
matters  of  business  concerning  the  company,  it  is 
hinted  that,2  "  Mr.  J.  P.  Benjamin  has  the  good  or  ill 
luck  to  be  prominently  identified  with  mysterious 
projects  ;  ...  we  do  not  doubt  that,  as  the  agent 
of  Mr.  Hargous,  ...  he  earnestly  aims  to  ben 
efit  his  adopted  city  by  the  promotion  of  the  Tehuan 
tepec  route ;  but  we  complain  of  the  movements  set 
on  foot  by  him,  inasmuch  as  they  are  unusual,  strange, 

1  Date  March  10th,  in  Delta,  April  12th. 

2  True  Delta,  May  18,  1851. 


130  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

and  most  suspicious."  More  and  more  hysterical 
becomes  the  True  Delta,  till  it  quite  earns  the  nick 
name  bestowed  by  the  Courier:  u  U  Isthmopliobe 
le  nom  seul  de  Visthme  de  Tehuantepec  lui 
donne  des  acces  de  fureur  et  de  rage." 

It  was  vain  for  Benjamin  to  maintain  a  cheerfulness 
and  apparent  unconcern  which  observers  noted  as 
characteristic  in  a  later  and  far  graver  crisis.  It  was 
vain  for  him  to  refer  in  speeches  to  the  probable  re 
turn  of  reason  and  common  honesty  in  Mexico ;  to 
publish  cards  in  the  papers  with  encouraging  reports 
from  Major  Barnard  ;  to  advertise  for  and  buy 
steamers ;  to  employ  five  hundred  laborers,  in  behalf 
of  the  company.  Public  confidence  could  not  be  ex 
pected  to  revive  in  the  face  of  the  news  from  Mexico. 
Benjamin  went  to  Washington  in  July,  having  lin 
gered  in  New  Orleans  just  long  enough  to  hear  the 
worst — President  Arista's  proclamation  ordering  the 
expulsion  of  Barnard.  Webster  had  just  left  the 
capital,  so  Benjamin  followed  to  Marshfield  to  urge 
his  claims.  The  interview  was  full  of  good  promise, 
and  Benjamin  came  back  to  New  Orleans  and  pub 
lished  a  long  and  very  interesting  "  Address  to  the 
People  of  the  United  States,"  setting  forth  the  history 
of  the  Garay  grant  up  to  date,  and  making  an  unan 
swerable  plea  for  its  validity.  It  is  from  this  article 
that  I  have  taken  some  of  the  facts  in  this  account. 

There  was  a  lull  in  affairs  concerning  Tehuantepec 
during  the  remainder  of  1851,  and  the  New  Orleans 
company  by  no  means  gave  up  hope.  Their  surveyors 
had  located  a  good  route,  had  discovered  a  practicable 
harbor  on  the  Pacific,  and  had  published  this  infor 
mation  in  an  interesting  report  (March,  1852).  Benja- 


COMMEECIAL  INTEEESTS  131 

min,  presiding  at  a  meeting  of  the  directors  on  April 
10,  1852,  reported  these  facts,  and  in  addition  stated 
that  a  responsible  firm  of  contractors  had  proposed 
to  build  the  entire  line  of  railway,  one  hundred  and 
sixty-six  miles,  at  the  rate  of  $40,000  per  mile.  He 
had  now  succeeded  in  getting  the  State  Department  to 
take  action  in  the  matter.  Webster  had  written  to 
Letcher :  i  i  Perhaps,  if  on  a  suitable  occasion,  you 
were  to  hint  .  .  .  that  the  money  due  to  Mexico 
for  the  extension  of  the  limits  of  our  territory,  pur 
suant  to  the  treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo,  had  not  yet 
been  paid  in  full,  and  that  contingencies  might  hap 
pen  which  would  warrant  the  Government  in  with 
holding  it,  an  impression  might  be  produced  favorable 
to  the  result  of  your  negotiations. " 

But  this  mild  threat  proved  quite  ineffective. 
Though  Mexico  had  protested  violently  and  with  Latin 
heroics  that  she  would  never  permit  the  Tehuantepec 
Eailway  to  be  built  by  foreigners,  Arista  and  his  Con 
gress  authorized  a  new  grant  to  a  foreigner,  Colonel 
A.  G.  Sloo,  of  New  Orleans.  Mr.  Benjamin  had 
pretty  clearly  intimated  in  his  "  Address'7  that  sin 
ister  influence  had  been  exerted  against  his  company 
by  some  foreign  nation,  and  that  the  peculiar  jeal 
ousy  and  distrust  of  Americans  by  Mexico  was  re 
sponsible  for  much  of  the  difficulty.  If  Mexico  had 
been  resentful  of  American  encroachments,  surely 
no  one  could  have  blamed  her  honestly.  But  that 
such  was  not  really  the  case  was  proved  by  her  action 
in  making  the  new  grant,  however  much  her  politi 
cians  may  have  stirred  up  the  people  against  one  set 
of  Americans  before  they  sold  out  to  another.  The 
essential  difference  between  the  Sloo  grant  and  the 


132  JTJDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

Garay  grant  is  that  the  new  one  proposed  a  payment 
to  Mexico  for  the  privileges  at  once, 

Benjamin  kept  up  the  fight  some  time  longer  ;  but 
it  must  have  been  evident  to  all  now  that  if  he  had 
bought  anything  in  the  Garay  grant  he  had  bought 
not  the  right  to  build  a  railway,  but,  as  one  facetious 
critic  remarked,  the  right  to  a  lawsuit.  Really,  the 
only  question  henceforth  was  whether  this  lawsuit 
was  to  lie  in  the  courts  of  Mexico,  or  in  those  of  the 
United  States.  He  carried  it  into  the  Senate,  and 
sought  to  have  it  made  an  international  matter. 
But  the  resolutions  then  introduced  by  Senator  Mason 
were  even  more  fruitless  than  such  measures  usually 
are.  Benjamin  wrote  another  pamphlet,  showing  the 
justice  of  the  claims  of  his  company  and  urging  the 
government  to  act.  He  pictured  the  political  condi 
tion  of  Mexico,  with  thirty  persons  claiming  to  have 
exercised  supreme  executive  authority,  within  the  last 
thirty -six  years,  and  during  that  same  period  five 
forms  of  government  intermediate  between  anarchy 
and  absolutism.  But  Webster  passed  away,  and  a 
new  and  less  friendly  administration  followed  that  of 
Fillmore.  A  humorous  incident  in  connection  with 
this  stage  of  the  matter  is  the  threat  by  Benton's 
Missouri  Democrat.  One  of  the  provisions  of  the 
Garay  grant  had  been  that  colonists  introduced 
should  become  Mexican  citizens.  This  did  not,  of 
course,  apply  to  the  grantee  or  to  the  company.  But 
the  Missouri  Democrat  hinted  that  it  might  be  well 
to  inquire  into  the  matter  with  the  object  of  deter 
mining  whether  Mr.  J.  P.  Benjamin,  "who  signs 
himself  in  his  correspondence  with  Mr.  "Webster  as 
4 Chairman  of  the  Managing  Committee7  "  of  the  Te- 


COMMEECIAL  INTEBESTS  133 

huantepec  Company  be  really  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States  or  of  Mexico.  Mr.  Benjamin  did  not  lose  his 
seat  in  the  Senate  on  the  ground  of  his  having  be 
come  a  Mexican,  but  neither  did  he  get  the  United 
States  to  back  the  claims  of  the  isthmian  enter 
prise. 

The  last  fight  in  the  Senate  was  over  the  Gadsden 
treaty.  This  originally  contained  two  articles  protect 
ing  claimants  against  Mexico,  and  specifically  naming 
the  Garay  grant.  Mexico  insisted  on  a  clear  state 
ment  that  she  did  not  recognize  its  validity,  and  the 
government  of  the  United  States  was  to  assume  the 
task  of  examining,  before  special  commissioners,  the 
claims  under  this  grant,  which  might  be  paid  out  of  a 
fund  of  five  million  dollars  reserved  from  the  whole  sum 
of  fifteen  millions  provided  for  in  the  treaty.  The 
Senate,  however,  threw  out  these  provisions  when  the 
treaty  was  finally  ratified. 1 

This  concludes,  for  the  present  at  least,  Mr.  Benja 
min's  connection  with  the  unfortunate  Tehuantepec 
Company.  What  were  the  actual  losses  of  those  inter 
ested — and  New  Orleans  people  furnished  practically 
all  of  the  actual  money  expended— it  is  impossible  to 
determine.  Hargous  made  a  claim  for  something  more 
than  five  million  dollars ;  but  that  was  of  course  a 

1  In  addition  to  the  contemporary  press,  to  which  references  have 
been  given,  interesting  matter  bearing  npon  the  earlier  and  later 
fortunes  of  Tehuantepec  may  be  found  in  :  Williams,  Isthmus  of  Te 
huantepec  (1852)  ;  Memorial  on  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec,  by  the 
Mexican  Minister  of  Relations  (1852) ;  Trastour,  Summary  Explan 
ation  respecting  the  Tehuantepec  Canal  (1856) ;  Conventions  and 
Treaties  of  the  United  States  (1889) ;  Stevens,  Tehuantepec  Railway 
(1869);  Bads,  Tehuantepec  Ship-Railway  (1883)  ;  Corthell,  Atlantic 
and  Pacific  Ship-Railway  (1886).  For  the  revival  of  the  project 
under  Benjamin's  auspices,  see  Chapter  VII. 


134  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

fantastic  figure  including  estimated  damages  in  the  loss 
of  his  valuable  privilege.  It  is  more  likely  that  the  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars  mentioned  by  Mr.  Benjamin 
in  his  address  (published  after  the  completion  of  the 
survey)  would  quite  cover  the  loss ;  and  a  newspaper 
gossip  reports  that  the  total  was  really  not  over 
eighteen  thousand  dollars. 

This  undertaking  brought  him  more  harsh  and  un 
generous  criticism  than  almost  anything  in  which  he 
was  engaged.  But  he  was  not  spared  in  connection 
with  the  Jackson  Eailroad,  of  which  he  was  one  of  the 
foremost  promoters.  In  the  midst  of  the  exciting  po 
litical  campaigns  of  the  spring  of  1852,  the  movement 
for  a  railway  to  connect  New  Orleans  with  the  north 
via  Jackson,  Miss.,  took  definite  shape  in  New  Orleans, 
though  more  than  a  year  before  this  time  there  had 
been  discussion  of  the  matter. x  Benjamin  and  Eobb 
had  spoken  in  favor  of  such  a  road  at  the  Southwestern 
Eailroad  meeting  in  January.  Benjamin  spoke  again 
at  a  meeting  on  April  15th.  He  gave  an  exposition  of 
the  advantages  of  the  railway,  a  report  of  what  had  al 
ready  been  done  by  a  provisional  committee,  and 
much  technical  information  about  the  proposed  route, 
the  cost  of  construction,  etc.  He  advocated  a  tax  on 
property  to  aid  this  and  the  Opelousas  Eoad,  to  be 
voted  on  by  the  people.2 

Shortly  after  this  meeting,  the  first  election  for  di 
rectors  of  the  company  was  held.  There  were  to  be 


1  Delta,  April  22,  1851,  Benjamin  chairman  of  committee  on  in 
corporation,    rendered    difficult    by  restrictive    laws :    cf.    Delta. 
April  30. 

2  Picayune,  January  7,  8,  and  April  16  ;  Delta,  January  7  and  15, 
1852. 


COMMEECIAL  INTEEESTS  135 

twelve  from  Louisiana,  and  six  from  Mississippi ;  and 
among  those  chosen  for  Louisiana  were  Benjamin, 
Eobb,  J.  P.  Harrison,  John  Slidell,  H.  S.  Buckner, 
and  Emile  La  Sere — names  which  are  still  familiar  to 
many  in  New  Orleans.  Benjamin  was  not  only  an 
active  member  of  the  directorate,  but  he  was  chief 
legal  adviser  of  the  company  as  long  as  his  senatorial 
duties  admitted  of  his  being  in  Louisiana.  In  spite 
of  a  threatening  opposition,  the  railroad  advocates 
carried  the  day,  getting  a  fair  majority  on  the  vote  for 
the  tax.  And  things  progressed  very  satisfactorily  in 
the  preliminary  work  on  the  road,  even  to  the  actual 
construction,  although  there  was  more  difficulty  in 
Mississippi,  owing  to  the  bad  financial  reputation  of 
the  state  and  the  consequent  reluctance  of  capitalists 
to  invest  in  anything  that  bore  her  name. 

In  Louisiana,  too,  there  was  some  trouble,  and  much 
ill-feeling,  in  connection  with  the  bonds  of  the  com 
pany.  Bonds  bearing  eight  per  cent,  interest,  and 
secured  by  the  city  tax  on  real  estate,  had  been  issued  ; 
but  though  Mr.  Benjamin  and  other  lawyers  had  given 
written  opinions  which  were  favorable  to  the  validity 
of  the  charter,  of  the  bonds,  and  of  the  tax,  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  state  had  not  yet  pronounced 
upon  these  questions.  Mr.  Eobb  was  said  to  have 
bought  $600,000  of  these  bonds  at  a  discount  of  ten  per 
cent.,  and  a  certain  section  of  the  press  attacked  the 
transaction  as  little  short  of  dishonest,  though  there 
was  nothing  to  show  that  they  would  have  com 
manded  aoiy  higher  price  at  the  time  in  the  open  mar 
ket.  However  that  may  be,  the  city  council  thought 
it  a  fair  opportunity  to  meddle  in  the  affairs  of  this  big 
corporation.  Accordingly,  they  sent  a  committee  to 


136  JTJDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

Benjamin  to  demand  of  the  directors  all  the  particulars 
of  the  bond  sale,  on  the  ground  that  they,  the  council, 
were  guardians  of  the  public  interest  in  the  matter. 
Benjamin,  at  the  time  acting  as  chairman  of  the  New 
Orleans,  Jackson,  and  Great  Northern  Eailroad  Com 
pany,  replied  in  a  little  legal  communication  polite 
but  very  firm,  the  plain  English  of  which  was  that  it 
was  none  of  the  council's  business  ;  that  the  directors 
were  required  by  the  charter  to  issue  periodical  state 
ments  to  the  stockholders,  and  to  make  special  reports 
whenever  a  specified  number  of  the  stockholders 
should  desire  it ;  but  that  the  councilmen,  as  council- 
men,  were  not  stockholders,  and  had  no  right  to  the 
information  they  sought.  Of  course,  this  position  was 
perfectly  proper  ;  the  move  of  the  city  council  was  in 
spired  by  political  motives. l 

But  as  Benjamin  had  chanced  to  be  the  representa 
tive  of  the  company,  all  the  wrath  of  the  disappointed 
councilmen  and  their  friends  descended  upon  his  head. 
Now  that  time  has  hushed  all  these  voices,  it  is  with 
amusement  that  we  record  the  vicious  remark  of  the 
True  Delta,  that  Mr.  Benjamin  was  always  ready  for 
"  a  nefarious  blow  aimed  at  popular  rights  or  public 
justice  "  ;  and  "  that  the  same  Mr.  Benjamin  would  be 
found  equally  willing  and  ready  to  give  his  opinion, 
provided  it  were  his  interest  to  do  so,  to  the  effect  that 
his  Satanic  Majesty  is  entitled  by  law  to  exercise 
archiepiscopal  functions  in  this  diocese,  we  have  no 
more  doubt  than  we  have  of  his  connivance  in  the  sac 
rifice  of  the  $600,000  of  railroad  bonds." 

Not  all  of  Mr.  Benjamin's  fellow  citizens,  however, 
shared  the  True  Delta's  splenetic  dislike.  He  was 

1  True  Delta,  May  4,  July  8,  12  and  14,  1853. 


COMMEECIAL  INTERESTS  137 

constantly  in  demand  socially,  and  for  those  semi- 
social  public  gatherings  where  ladies  were  gently  in 
ducted  into  political  mysteries  by  some  honey-tongued 
orator,  as  well  as  popular  meetings  to  express  the  hopes, 
fears,  indignation,  of  the  people.  Thus  he  had  been 
the  speaker  of  the  evening  at  the  great  annual  dinner 
of  the  New  England  Society,  December  22,  1852,  the 
first  at  which  ladies  had  ever  been  present.  Mr.  E.  A. 
Bradford,  soon  to  become  his  partner,  responded 
to  the  toast  of  "  Webster, "  and  Benjamin  to  that  of 
"  Louisiana."  It  is  unfortunate  that  we  have  only  the 
newspaper's  word,1  and  our  own  fancy,  that  both 
speeches  were  beautiful,  "  enchanting  the  fair  au 
ditors.  "  Again  he  had  stepped  aside  from  absorbing 
local  politics,  in  October,  1852, 2  to  speak  at  a  great 
indignation  meeting  over  the  treatment  of  the  steam 
ship  Crescent  City  by  the  Spanish  authorities  in  Cuba. 
The  details  of  the  incident  are  petty — concerning  an 
individual  named  William  Smith,  whom  the  Span 
iards,  for  the  most  excellent  reasons,  did  not  desire  in 
Cuba, — but  New  Orleans  was  a  filibustering  city,  and 
there  was  great  excitement.  Of  Benjamin's  speech  we 
need  only  say  that  it  was  very  remarkable  for  its  tone 
of  moderation.  In  response  to  his  query,  What 
should  the  people  do  to  avenge  the  insult  to  America 
in  the  treatment  of  the  Crescent  City,  hundreds  of 
voices  in  the  great  throng  that  filled  Lafayette  Square 
shouted,  "  Fight !  fight !  "  Mr.  Benjamin  said  that  we 
should  first  be  sure  we  were  right,  then  go  ahead  ;  it 
appeared  that  the  Spanish  government  was  ignorant 
of  the  insult  which  had  been  offered  by  Captain  Gen- 

1  Picayune,  Dec.  23,  1852. 
6  True  Delta,  Oct.  13. 


138  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

eral  Cafieda ;  if  so,  l  i  let  us  make  a  dignified  but 
peremptory  demand  for  reparation,  and  wait  till  that 
is  refused  before  we  proceed  to  make  war  upon  Spain." 

But  the  crowning  testimony  to  the  esteem  and  good 
will  of  those  who  were  associated  with  him  is  the 
great  banquet  given  in  his  honor  by  members  of  the 
Boston  Club  (November,  1853),  on  the  eve  of  his  de 
parture  for  Washington. ' 

With  all  the  splendor  of  display  and  exquisiteness 
of  cuisine  in  which  New  Orleans  delighted  and  for 
which  she  was  famous,  the  banquet  of  one  hundred 
covers  was  laid  at  the  St.  Charles  Hotel.  Mr.  Brad 
ford  presided,  and  when  the  time  for  toasts  came,  he 
opened  with  a  little  address,  dwelling  upon  the  pleasant 
and  amiable  traits  of  character  that  endeared  their 
guest  to  them,  his  fellows  of  the  club,  and  ending  with 
one  of  those  gracious  "  sentiments"  so  touchingly 
redolent  of  the  days  when  gentlemen  took  time  to  be 
gentle  and  to  cultivate  "elegance";  he  said  that 
"the  success  of  Mr.  Benjamin  in  his  public  career 
could  not  equal  the  wishes  nor  exceed  the  expectations 
of  his  fellow  citizens."  Benjamin's  reply,  of  which 
again  we  have  but  a  poor  report,  reviewed  his  career 
in  New  Orleans,  with  all  the  happy  and  tender  asso 
ciations  refreshed  in  his  memory  by  the  occasion  of 
this  banquet : — how  he  had  come,  a  poor  and  friend 
less  boy,  twenty-six  years  ago,  and  had  met  with  un 
interrupted  kindness,  encouragement,  and  confidence. 
"In  all  that  time  he  had  never  made  a  friend  who 
had  been  alienated,  or  asked  a  favor,  public  or  private, 
that  had  not  been  granted."  It  was  no  mere  political 
banquet  to  celebrate  a  victory — of  those  there  were 

1  Picayune,  Nov.  23. 


COMMEECIAL  INTEEESTS  139 

plenty.  It  was  a  spontaneous  expression  of  a  body  of 
gentlemen  of  all  shades  of  political  opinion  ;  and  we 
need  not  wonder  that  Mr.  Benjamin  was  moved  by 
this  unusual  compliment  to  one  who  had  been  in 
political  campaigns  so  bitter  as  those  recently  con 
ducted  in  Louisiana. 

With  this  pleasant  God-speed,  he  returned  to  Wash 
ington  for  the  short  session  of  the  Congress.  As  was 
noted  above,  the  routine  work  to  which  he  chiefly  de 
voted  himself  is  barren  of  interest  for  us.  But,  in  the 
Senate  and  out,  his  abilities  as  a  debater  were  attract 
ing  attention.  One  instance  will  suffice,  an  argument 
before  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  great  McDonogh  case, 
Benjamin  appearing  for  the  heirs  of  McDonogh  against 
the  cities  of  New  Orleans  and  Baltimore,  which  had 
been  made  the  chief  beneficiaries.  As  a  legal  argu 
ment,  it  displays  more  subtlety  than  soundness,  and  it 
does  not  now  carry  conviction  to  our  judgment  any 
more  than  it  did  to  that  of  Justice  Campbell ;  but  the 
reporter  of  the  Washington  Union  waxes  enthusiastic 
over  its  eloquence  and  power  when  delivered  by  Ben 
jamin.1 

He  writes  :  "  Whoever  was  not  in  the  Supreme  Court 
room  this  morning  missed  hearing  one  of  the  finest 
forensic  speakers  in  the  United  States.  In  the  case  of 
the  great  McDonogh  estate,  Mr.  Senator  Benjamin 
made  one  of  the  most  truly  elegant  and  eloquent 
speeches  that  it  was  ever  my  good  fortune  to  hear. 
His  address  is  refined,  his  language  pure,  chaste,  and 
elegant ;  his  learning  and  reading  evidently  great ;  his 
power  of  analysis  and  synthesis  very  great ;  his  argu 
ment  as  logical  as  the  nature  of  the  case  will  admit ; 

1  Quoted  in  the  Picayune,  Feb.  2,  1854. 


140  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

his  rhetoric  so  enchanting  as  for  the  time  to  blind  his 
hearers  to  the  faults  in  his  logic  if  any.  .  .  .  Mr. 
Benjamin  contends  that  substantially  the  devise  in  the 
will  is  not  to  [the  cities  of  New  Orleans  and  Balti 
more]  as  beneficiaries,  but  only  as  trustees  for  others  ; 
and  you  can  judge  of  his  powers  as  a  debater  when  I  say 
that  I  think  he  carried  conviction  to  most  all,  if  not  all,  of 
his  hearers,  at  least  during  the  time  that  he  was  speak 
ing.  So  fascinating  was  his  oratory  that  his  hearers, 
at  least  one  of  them,  lost  sight  of  the  fact  that  the  city 
of  New  Orleans,  to  which  the  devise  was  made,  was 
not  that  spot  of  earth  or  physical  entity  known  as 
such  city,  but  the  community  occupying  that  spot. 
.  .  .  The  man  who  has  the  power  to  render,  for 
even  a  moment,  such  a  question  obscure,  must  be  a 
finished  debater.'7 


CHAPTER  VI 

CHANGE  IN  POLITICAL  VIEWS 

FOR  some  years  the  health  of  W.  C.  Micou,  with 
whom  Mr.  Benjamin  had  associated  himself  since  1849, 
was  so  poor  as  to  increase  his  labors  greatly.  Benja 
min  had  been  accustomed  to  devote  himself  to  the 
commercial  cases — though  occasionally  engaging  in 
criminal  cases — leaving  the  jury  work  generally  to 
Mr.  Micou.  But  when  his  health  began  to  give 
way,  and  the  senior  partner  found  more  and  more  of 
his  time  engrossed  by  occupations  outside  of  his  pro 
fession,  it  became  necessary  to  find  another  associate. 
For  a  short  time  John  Finney,  just  starting  out  in 
practice,  was  connected  with  the  firm  of  Benjamin  and 
Micou.  Then,  in  the  early  part  of  1854,  notice1  is 
given  that  J.  P.  Benjamin,  W.  C.  Micou,  John  Finney, 
and  E.  A.  Bradford  "  have  formed  a  partnership  for 
the  practice  of  their  profession,"  an  arrangement  which 
lasted  but  a  very  few  weeks,  for  Mr.  Micou  died  in 
April,  leaving  the  firm  as  it  was  to  remain  for  six 
years, — Benjamin,  Bradford,  and  Finney.  Mr.  Micou 
was  a  man  of  high  character  and  good  attainments  as  a 
lawyer,  but  not  comparable  to  the  new  member. 

Mr.  Bradford,  although  of  a  very  different  type 
from  Benjamin,  was  a  man  of  most  unusual  force  and 
intellect.  As  great  a  student  as  Benjamin,  he  was  not 
distracted  from  his  legal  investigations  by  the  allure 
ments  of  politics.  More  quiet  and  colder,  lie  was 

1  Orescent,  March  24,  1854. 


142  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

consequently  not  so  good  an  orator ;  but  these  very  limi 
tations  preserved  him  from  the  danger  of  being  over- 
sanguine,  made  him  less  liable  to  be  carried  away  by 
sudden  enthusiasms,  or  misled  by  the  fascinating  in 
genuity  of  an  over-subtle  plea.  These  were  the  defects 
inherent  in  a  nature  like  Mr.  Benjamin's,  and  occa 
sionally  noted  even  by  his  earnest  admirers  during  his 
lifetime.  Mr.  Bradford  was  not  so  ingenious,  so  fertile 
in  suggesting  plausible  pleas,  or  so  subtle  in  elaborating 
an  argument;  but  he  had  the  same  power  of  clear 
analysis,  and  those  who  have  heard  both  say  that 
his  presentation  of  the  facts  to  a  jury  was  better  than 
that  of  his  brilliant  partner.  They  worked  together  in 
harmony,  agreeing  to  differ  not  infrequently  on  politics, 
but  most  devoted  to  each  other  personally, — united  by 
bonds  of  friendship  as  long  as  Mr.  Bradford  lived,  and 
long  after  the  dissolution  of  the  firm  by  the  great  con 
flict  .  After  the  death  of  Mr.  Bradford,  the  intimacy 
with  his  family  endured  to  the  end. 

In  connection  with  the  land  claims  before  the  Cali 
fornia  Commissioners,  Benjamin  had  found  his  knowl 
edge  of  Spanish  and  Spanish  laws  invaluable.  He  had 
since  had  frequent  opportunity  to  perfect  himself  in 
the  language  in  connection  with  the  Tehuantepec  Com 
pany.  Already,  indeed,  local  journals  had  suggested 
his  fitness  for  a  diplomatic  mission  to  Mexico.  But  it 
was  not  as  an  ambassador  that  he  was  to  find  a  singular 
use  for  his  linguistic  and  legal  accomplishments.  In 
the  autumn  of  1854,  the  newspapers  announce,  mysteri 
ously,  that  Mr.  Benjamin  has  gone  to  the  Pacific  coast 
of  South  America.  In  January,  1855,  they  report 
his  return  "on  his  way  to  Washington,  from  Ecuador, 
from  which  government  he  bears  a  commercial  treaty 


CHANGE  IN  POLITICAL  VIEWS          143 

with  ours,  in  the  execution  of  which  he  has  been  en 
gaged  for  some  months."  *  As  usual,  this  was  only 
half  true. 

The  visit  to  Ecuador  was  on  private  business,  though 
it  for  a  time  seemed  to  be  of  sufficient  magnitude  to 
interest  others  besides  those  directly  concerned.  Gen 
eral  Villamil,  who  had  been  a  resident  of  New  Orleans, 
and  had  also  been  a  minister  from  Ecuador  at  Washing 
ton,  had  purchased  some  sort  of  claim  to  one  or  more 
of  the  Galapagos  Islands,  which  lie  about  five  hundred 
miles  off  the  coast  of  that  republic  directly  under 
the  imaginary  line  from  which  it  takes  its  name. 
General  Villamil  had  not  been  able  to  make  Charles 
Island,  the  one  that  he  claimed,  in  any  way  re 
munerative  ;  nor  was  his  title  altogether  clear.  He 
had  tried  to  organize  a  company,  and  then  employed 
Mr.  Benjamin  as  counsel  and  got  him  interested  in 
the  island  on  his  own  account.  Eeports  were  cir 
culated  of  very  rich  deposits  of  guano  there  and 
the  lawyer  was  induced  to  believe  in  the  repre 
sentations  made  to  him  so  far  as  to  undertake  a  per 
sonal  investigation  of  this  source  of  wealth  untold.  He 
went  to  Quito,  and  there  argued  VillamiFs  claim  in 
the  courts — a  feat  which  would  have  been  considered 
more  than  remarkable  in  any  one  with  a  less  romantic 
history,  and  which  is  certainly  good  evidence  of  his 
familiarity  with  the  language  of  the  country.  But  it 
is  only  on  hearsay  that  we  can  affirm  that  he  himself 
went  to  see  Charles  Island.  As  they  approached  the 
island,  it  is  said,  the  black  mounds  and  heaps  covering 
its  surface  were  hailed  as  deposits  of  guano  ;  on  in 
vestigation  they  proved  to  be  a  barren  waste  of  gray 

1  Picayune,  Jan.  2,  1855. 


144  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

and  brown  boulders.  It  was  as  the  New  York  Times 
said :  Villaniil  had  painted  glowing  pictures  of  the 
fertility  of  the  island,  and  of  the  herds  of  cattle  there, 
but  he  had  said  nothing  of  the  volcanoes  ;  "  he  told 
a  lot  about  the  'critturs,'  but  never  a  word  of  the 
craters."  1 

Before  the  public  was  informed  of  all  this,  however, 
there  had  been  wild  suggestions — that  Benjamin  had 
in  his  pocket  a  commercial  treaty  with  Ecuador,  pro 
tecting  the  guano  trading  rights  ;  that  he  had  exceeded 
all  bounds  in  thus  usurping  diplomatic  functions  in 
addition  to  his  senatorial  duties,  that  the  United  States 
was  to  purchase  the  Galapagos  Islands  for  three  mil 
lions  ;  and  that  somehow  Benjamin  had  captured  a  fee 
of  $200,000  for  conducting  the  " negotiations."  He 
did  not  buy  the  guano  island,  nor  had  he  any  thought 
of  jumping  out  of  the  Senate  after  some  petty  diplo 
matic  bait. 

The  condition  of  things  at  Washington  was  growing 
more  and  more  serious  for  all  Southern  Whigs.  Benja 
min  continued  to  act  with  the  remnants  of  his  party  in 
1854  and  the  early  part  of  1855  ;  he  had  evidently  not 
made  up  his  mind  what  course  to  pursue.  Yet  so 
far  is  he  from  yielding  to  the  political  excitement  of 
the  moment  that  he  delivers  a  lecture  on  "  Law  as 
Practiced  at  Eome  in  the  days  of  Cicero,"  at  Peters 
burg,  Va.2  For  all  this,  one  could  not  help  seeing 
that  the  great  slavery  question,  every  time  it  made  its 
appearance  in  Congress,  was  dividing  the  Northern 
from  the  Southern  Whigs,  and  that  no  bridge  of  com- 

1  Delta,  Jan.  7, 1855 ;  of.  also  Jan.  3  ;  Picayune,  Jan.  4  and  5 ;  and 
True  Delta,  Jan.  6  and  7,  and  November  15. 
8  True  Delta,  April  17  ;  Picayune,  April  18,  1855. 


CHANGE  IN  POLITICAL  VIEWS        .145 

promise  could  span  the  chasm.  And,  in  their  desperate 
perplexity,  Whig  leaders  in  both  sections  of  the 
country  were  deserting  to  Democracy  or  to  one  or  other 
of  the  new  parties. 

In  the  North  and  West  Abolitionists  and  Bepubli- 
cans  were  on  the  increase.  The  two  had  not  yet 
coalesced — never  did  entirely  coalesce — for  the  man 
and  the  hour  had  not  come.  The  Eepublicans  had  not 
yet  made  up  their  minds  openly  to  favor  even  the 
gradual  emancipation  of  slaves,  much  less  the  rash  and 
impolitic  measures  proposed  by  radical  Abolitionists. 
But  the  party  was  at  least  a  "  Free  Soil7'  party  ;  i.  e., 
it  desired  to  restrict  slavery,  and  above  all  to  keep  it 
from  spreading  into  the  territories  now  just  being 
opened  in  the  West  and  Northwest.  And  the  South 
(not  without  reason,  as  history  discovered)  could  not 
distinguish  Tweedledum  from  Tweedledee,  hated  and 
feared  the  ' l  Black  Eepublican ' '  Seward,  deserter 
from  the  sinking  Whig  ship,  just  as  much  as  the  Abo 
litionist  Garrison.  Besides  these  abhorred  twins,  so 
very  near  alike,  there  was  the  Native  American  or 
Know  Nothing  party,  which  had  a  large  following  in 
certain  states  both  North  and  South.  Similar  tenets 
had  been  in  vogue  for  a  while  during  the  early  forties, 
particularly  in  Louisiana ;  but  the  revived  Know 
Nothings  were  far  more  active  and  ambitious  than  the 
Native  Americans  whose  doctrines  Benjamin  had 
seemed  to  like  in  1845. 

In  view  of  the  approaching  general  election,  and 
perhaps  remembering  Benjamin's  leanings  toward 
nativism  ten  years  earlier,  a  handful  of  faithful  old 
Whigs  in  New  Orleans  addressed  an  open  letter  to 
him,  asking  for  an  expression  of  his  opinions  on  the 


146  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

Know  Nothing  party.  To  this  he  replied l  at  consid 
erable  length,  so  that  we  shall  have  to  content  our 
selves  with  noticing  only  a  few  significant  portions. 

He  confesses  that,  "  in  the  debate  which  occurred  in 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  ...  on  the  Ne 
braska  Bill,  the  mortifying  conviction  was  forced  on 
my  mind  that  the  Whig  national  party  was  no  more. ' ' 
Northern  Whigs  had  again  and  again  refused  to  stand 
by  the  rights  guaranteed  to  the  South  in  the  Constitu 
tion  and  now  assailed  by  the  Abolitionists.  The  next 
House  would  be  controlled  by  the  Free  Soilers,  who 
had  boasted  of  their  determination  to  couple  a  repeal 
of  the  Nebraska  Law  and  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law 
with  the  general  appropriation  bill,  and  thus  carry 
their  point  or  bring  the  whole  administration  to  a  full 
stop.  And  though  this  attempt  would  be  foiled  in  the 
Senate,  the  parties  hostile  to  the  South,  call  them  what 
you  will,  were  waxing  stronger,  bolder,  more  inveter 
ate  and  unscrupulous  in  their  encouragement  of 
evasions  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  and  of  Abolition 
activities  North  and  South. 

"  Suppose,"  he  continues,  "a  body  of  insane  fa 
natics  in  this  section  of  the  Confederacy  should  avow 
their  belief  in  the  sinfulness  of  subjecting  the  animal 
creation  to  the  domination  and  service  of  man,  and 
should,  under  the  dictates  of  this  l  higher  law,'  act  on 
their  conviction  of  the  duty  of  stealing  from  the  North 
ern  farmers  the  flocks  and  herds  which  form  so  large  a 
portion  of  their  wealth.  Suppose  that  to  effect  this 
they  should  organize  bands  of  robbers  and  incendiaries 
who  should  make  the  night  lurid  with  the  flames  of 
their  barns  and  granaries,  and  even  threaten  with  the 

1  Delta,  August  3  and  5,  1855. 


CHANGE  IN  POLITICAL  VIEWS          147 

torch  the  roofs  that  protect  their  families.  Suppose 
that  in  this  course  of  conduct  they  were  not  only  ex 
cused,  but  encouraged  and  applauded  by  the  South, 
and  that  Southern  legislatures  took  pride  in  passing 
laws  for  their  protection  and  assistance, — how  long, 
think  you,  would  the  North  remain  as  patient  and  as 
forbearing  as  the  South  has  shown  herself  to  be?  " 

Now  that  our  country,  in  common  with  the  whole 
civilized  world,  is  at  one  in  the  belief  that  slavery  is 
morally  and  economically  wrong,  it  can  do  no  harm 
for  us  to  try  to  put  ourselves  in  a  frame  of  mind  at 
least  patient  of,  if  not  acquiescent  in,  such  views  as 
Mr.  Benjamin  here  voices.  To  him,  as  well  as  to 
hosts  of  good  men,  there  was  no  moral  wrong  in 
slavery  ;  but  arguments  on  the  ethics  of  the  question 
are  futile,  barren  of  everything  but  the  possibility  of 
exciting  bitterness.  Another  line  of  argument,  how 
ever,  should  appeal  to  the  reason  and  to  the  sense  of 
justice  of  all  of  us  ;  and  this  is  the  one  stated  by  Mr. 
Benjamin  in  the  paragraph  just  quoted.  Eepugnant 
to  our  feeling  it  may  be,  but  it  was  nevertheless  unde 
niably  the  right  of  the  slave-holder  to  have  as  good 
protection  in  the  use  of  his  property  as  was  afforded  to 
the  owners  of  any  other  species  of  property.  It  was 
guaranteed  to  him  by  laws  innumerable  ;  and  he  saw 
in  the  attacks  on  slavery  but  the  most  unaccountable, 
unwarrantable  violation  of  what  his  whole  Anglo- 
Saxon  temperament  and  training  had  taught  him 
to  regard  as  the  very  foundation  of  social  and  po 
litical  liberty — property  rights  of  the  individual.  It 
was  no  paradox  to  him  to  talk  of  the  abolition  of 
slavery  as  infringing  liberty ;  whether  or  not  slavery 
was  contrary  to  Se ward's  u  higher  law,"  his  slave  was 


148  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

a  very  valuable  piece  of  property,  had  cost  him,  prob 
ably,  a  good  round  sum  ;  and  he  could  no  more  see 
that  it  was  right  for  Northern  people  to  plan  to  rob 
him  of  his  slave  than  it  would  be  for  him  to  connive  at 
horse  stealing.  Individual  philanthropists  here  and 
there  may  have  been  willing  to  emancipate  their 
slaves ;  though  even  among  the  philanthropists  there 
is  one  well-known  case  which  might  be  mentioned.  A 
gentleman  made  such  disposal  of  his  vast  wealth  that 
it  still  works  untold  good,  and  liberated  his  slaves ; 
but,  it  will  be  found,  upon  investigation,  that  he  de 
vised  an  elaborate  scheme  by  which  the  negroes  bought 
their  own  freedom  j  that  one  of  the  conditions  attached 
to  their  freedom  was  that  they  should  immediately 
emigrate  to  Liberia  ;  and  that — he  bought  more  slaves. 
When  even  this  Southern  millionaire  of  most  benevo 
lent  disposition  did  not  feel  that  he  could  afford  to  lose 
his  slave  property,  would  it  not  be  extraordinary  if  the 
man  of  moderate  means,  whose  sole  productive  capital 
was  his  slave  property,  should  contemplate  with  calm 
ness  and  patience  the  political  success  of  those  who 
were  planning  to  deprive  him  of  what  was  his  own  ? 
The  South  was  not  ready  for  emancipation  ;  it  would 
not  have  consented  to  it  peacefully  for  many  years. 
Even  with  compensation  for  the  actual  slaves,  it  would 
not  have  consented  until  economic  changes  had  made 
slavery  as  impossible  as  at  the  North  ;  for  there  were 
many  who,  remembering  Hayti  and  Jamaica,  sincerely 
and  deeply  dreaded  the  possible  consequences  of  turn 
ing  loose  these  hordes  of  half-tamed  savages. 

It  was  to  a  public  firmly  convinced  of  such  facts — 
slaves  were  property,  the  North  was  seeking  to  rob 
them  of  this  property,  a  policy  not  only  cruelly  dis- 


CHANGE  IN  POLITICAL  VIEWS         149 

honest  but  fraught  with  fearful  perils  for  them — that 
Mr.  Benjamin  addressed  these  words.  He  and  count 
less  other  speakers  were  to  repeat  the  substance  of 
them  again  and  again,  prophesying  woe  and  wrath  to 
come,  till  the  dread  sound  of  war  justified  the  prophets 
and  silenced  their  voices  forever. 

We  have  turned  aside  here  to  summarize  conditions 
with  which  most  of  us  are  probably  painfully  familiar, 
but  which  we  must  keep  in  mind  while  following  a 
politician  through  the  years  just  prior  to  the  Civil 
War.  Mr.  Benjamin  himself  summarizes  them  in  the 
address  which  is  cited,  but  rather  for  his  audience 
than  for  one  of  our  time.  He  proceeds  to  his  con 
sideration  of  the  Know  Nothings.  Four-fifths  of  the 
Whigs  of  Louisiana,  instead  of  uniting  "  in  one  great 
Southern  party  upon  some  platform  similar  to  that  of 
Georgia,  on  which  we  can  all  stand  together  and  meet 
with  firmness  the  coming  shock,7'  have  been  seduced 
into  joining  that  organization.  This  is  not  a  na 
tional  party ;  it  is  objectionable  because  of  its  narrow, 
mediaeval  hostility  to  Catholics,  and  on  account  of  its 
puerile  oaths  of  secrecy  and  the  like.  But  above  all,  it 
is  not  a  national  party  because  it  has  no  platform,  no 
principles ;  it  is  "  held  together  not  by  the  ties  of  a 
common  belief  in  certain  principles  and  measures  of 
public  policy,  but  simply  by  their  preference  of  them 
selves  as  the  right  kind  of  men  for  office  holders"  ; 
and  finally,  it  is  hostile  to  the  South. 

With  greater  prescience  than  he  displayed  in  his 
later  action,  he  then  concludes  :  * t  Although  the  Dem 
ocratic  party  is  not  yet  so  thoroughly  disorganized  as 
the  Whig  party,  it  requires  no  political  sagacity  to 
perceive  that  it  cannot  maintain  itself  as  a  national 


150  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

party.  .  .  .  Impressed  with  these  views  of  public 
affairs,  I  shall  hold  aloof  from  the  present  state 
canvass.  I  will  not  even  join  the  attempt  to  revive 
the  organization  of  the  Whig  party.  Its  ashes  alone 
remain,  and  the  Phoenix  is  equally  a  fable  in  political 
as  in  natural  history.  I  shall  await  the  fast  approach 
ing  time  when  not  only  Louisiana  but  the  entire  South, 
animated  by  a  single  spirit,  shall  struggle  for  its 
dearest  rights,  and  in  defense  of  that  Constitution 
which  is  their  most  precious  heritage." 

The  battle  contemplated  by  Mr.  Benjamin,  it  is 
scarcely  necessary  to  remark,  was  political,  under  the 
Constitution  which  he  thought  the  best  safeguard  for 
North  and  South  alike.  He  was  not  of  the  "fire- 
eaters  ' '  who  exhausted  themselves  in  threats  of  war  ; 
of  that  it  would  be  time  to  speak  when  he  saw  that 
war  was  inevitable.  Benjamin's  great  Southern  party, 
of  which  for  a  while  there  was  some  talk  (Alexander 
H.  Stephens  was  to  be  its  organizer),  was  of  course 
hopeless  of  formation  as  of  power  if  it  had  been 
formed.  Such  a  party  could  not  have  had  a  majority 
in  either  house  of  Congress.  It  could  at  best  have 
held  the  balance  of  power  ;  and  for  all  questions  in 
which  the  South  was  vitally  interested  her  represent 
atives,  whether  calling  themselves  Democrats  or 
Know  Nothings,  could  already  be  depended  on  to  vote 
together. 

His  letter  was  received  with  approval  more  general 
than  usual ;  but  some  opponents  pooh-poohed  his  ap 
prehensions.  Eandell  Hunt,  one  of  the  "Whigs  who 
had  apostatized  to  "  Sammy  ism,"  delighted  a  meeting 
of  his  followers  by  a  sketch  of  Benjamin  going  forth 
to  war,  his  short  arm  bared  to  the  elbow,  brandishing 


CHANGE  IN  POLITICAL  VIEWS         151 

a  huge  and  gory  sabre. x  Others  advised  him  not  to 
despair  of  the  future,  but  to  cast  his  lot  with  the 
Democrats,  and  all  would  be  well.  Not  many  weeks, 
indeed,  were  needed  to  convince  Benjamin  that  his 
Southern  party  was  a  dream,  and  that  the  one  chance 
of  preserving  the  South  from  a  hostile  Congressional 
majority  lay  in  immediate  and  hearty  cooperation 
with  the  Democrats.  Exactly  when  he  arrived  at  the 
determination  to  become  a  Democrat  one  cannot  say  ; 
it  was  certainly  as  early  as  December,  1855  ;  but  he 
did  not  make  any  public  announcement  of  the  change, 
which  was  known  to  his  friends,  and  manifested  to 
the  public  by  a  slight  increase  of  cordiality  on  the  part 
of  the  administration.8  Not  till  May,  1856,  did  he 
find  a  suitable  opportunity  to  make  a  public  confes 
sion  of  political  faith.  The  telegraph  first,  and  then 
the  fuller  mail  reports — which  even  at  that  time 
took  more  than  a  week  to  reach  New  Orleans  from 
Washington — announced  Benjamin's  first  really  pow 
erful  speech  in  the  Senate,  May  2d,  on  the  Kansas 
bill.3 

This  is  not  the  proper  place  to  quote  an  address  of 
much  length  ;  but  it  is  one  of  the  two  or  three  of  so 
much  importance  in  Mr.  Benjamin's  senatorial  career 
that  we  must  attempt  to  present  some  characteristic 
ideas  inspiring  it.  Of  its  style  in  general  the  reader 
may  judge  from  the  extracts  we  can  give  ;  throughout 
it  is  what  the  old-fashioned  critics  called  "  chaste," 
meaning  that  it  is  simple,  very  severe  and  restrained, 

1  Delta,  Aug.  16 ;  True  Delta,  Aug.  5. 

2  Picayune,  Dec.  6,  13  and  23  ;  True  Delta,  Dec.  7. 

*  Globe,  1855-1856,  Part  I,  p.  1092  et  seq.  ;  cf.  True  Delta,  May 
11,  1856  ;  Courier,  May  11,  15  and  16 ;  Crescent,  May  12. 


152  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

not  at  all  "  flowery."  Its  arguments  are  not  new — 
who  could  hope  even  then  to  find  new  things  to  say 
on  such  a  question  I — but  they  are  marshaled  with 
unusual  skill,  and  illustrated  with  a  simplicity  which 
gives  them  greater  force.  Its  view  of  the  facts  of  our 
constitutional  history,  though  contrary  to  that  pre 
sented  in  the  great  speech  of  Webster  which  Benja 
min  must  have  had  in  mind  while  framing  his  argu 
ment,  is  incontrovertible  as  history,  however  it  may  be 
doubted  as  sound  or  practicable  in  public  policy.  In 
temper  it  is  sometimes  severe  and  sarcastic,  for  Mr. 
Benjamin  had  a  caustic  tongue  and  felt  deeply  upon 
the  questions  involved  ;  but  it  is  mildness  itself  in 
comparison  with  the  bitter,  savage,  often  coarse  in 
vectives  that  senators  from  both  sections  hurled  at 
each  other.  There  could  be  no  better  remedy  for 
exaggerated  veneration  of  men  and  measures  of  a  past 
age  than  a  perusal  of  some  of  those  disgraceful  pages 
of  the  Congressional  Globe  when  partisans  so  violent 
as  Foote  or  Wade  had  the  floor.  In  this  speech  as  in 
all  others,  Mr.  Benjamin  does  not  forget  that  he  is  a 
gentleman,  and  that  he  is  speaking  in  an  august  body  ; 
accordingly,  he  engages  in  a  battle  wherein  the 
weapons  are  purely  intellectual,  armed  with  the  keen 
est  and  most  fatal  of  rapiers  instead  of  a  thick  blud 
geon,  with  which  to  smash  his  opponent. 

After  reviewing  the  history  of  the  compromises, 
all  of  which,  he  alleges,  had  failed  to  work  satisfac 
torily,  because  of  the  bad  faith  of  the  North,  Benja 
min  said  :  * i  The  policy  of  seeking  for  some  other 
compromises  than  those  which  are  contained  in  the 
Constitution  was  a  mistaken  policy  on  the  part  of  the 
South.  .  .  .  She  has  no  longer  any  compromises 


CHANGE  IN  POLITICAL  VIEWS         153 

to  offer  or  to  accept.  She  looks  to  those  contained 
in  the  Constitution  itself.  By  them  she  will  live ; 
to  them  she  will  adhere  ;  and  if  those  provisions 
which  are  contained  in  it  shall  be  violated  to  her 
wrong,  then  she  will  calmly  and  resolutely  with 
draw  from  a  compact  all  the  obligations  of  which 
she  is  expected  scrupulously  to  fulfil,  from  all  the 
benefits  of  which  she  is  ignominiously  excluded." 

This  distinct  and  calm  enunciation  of  the  doctrine 
of  the  right  of  secession  was  the  result  of  careful 
deliberation.  In  common  with  the  very  great  ma 
jority  of  the  leading  political  students  of  the  South, 
Mr.  Benjamin  was  confident  of  this  right ;  as  confi 
dent,  one  might  venture  to  say,  as  were  most  of  the 
frarners  of  the  Constitution,  or  "we,  the  people  of 
the  states  of  Virginia,  Massachusetts,'7  etc.,  when 
they  voted  to  adopt  that  Constitution.  That  national 
life  and  national  government  on  such  a  principle 
would  be  utterly  impracticable,  either  did  not  occur 
to  them  or,  if  so,  did  not  distress  them  in  the  least. 
Whether  they  called  themselves  Whigs  or  Democrats 
or  Know  Nothings,  the  people  of  the  South  were, 
and  are,  extremely  democratic,  and  believe  that  local 
government  is  better  than  a  centralized  government ; 
they  had,  and  have,  a  very  wholesome  dread  of 
that  which  we  now  call  imperialism  and  paternalism. 
And  Louisiana,  which  had  certainly  never  had  any 
sovereign  rights  to  surrender  to  the  Federal  gov 
ernment,  was  just  as  sincere  in  asserting  state  sover 
eignty  as  was  Texas,  which  had  for  ten  whole  years 
enjoyed  autonomy.  Mr.  Benjamin  restates  the  prin 
ciple  in  this  same  speech. 

"What,  then,  is  the  principle  that  underlies  that 


154  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

whole  compact  for  our  common  government  .  .  .  ? 
It  is,  sir,  the  equality  of  the  free  and  independent 
states  which  that  instrument  links  together  in  a  com 
mon  bond  of  union — entire,  absolute,  complete,  unquali 
fied  equality — equality  as  sovereigns,  equality  in  their 
rights,  equality  in  their  duties.  This  was  the  spirit 
that  presided  over  the  formation  of  the  Constitution  ; 
this  is  the  living  spirit  that  breathes  through  every 
line  of  it ;  this  is  the  object  professed  by  it  of  forming 
1  a  more  perfect  union.' 

*  Great  were  the  thoughts,  and  strong  the  minds, 

Of  those  who  framed  in  high  debate 
The  immortal  league  of  love  that  binds 

Our  fair,  broad  empire  state  to  state.' 

Take  away  this  league  of  love  ;  convert  it  into  a 
bond  of  distrust,  of  suspicion,  or  of  hate  ;  and  the  en 
tire  fabric,  which  is  held  together  by  that  cement,  will 
crumble  to  the  earth,  and  rest  scattered  in  dishonored 
fragments  upon  the  ground." 

If  this  equality  be  a  reality,  he  argues,  not  a  mere 
dead  promise  of  a  Constitution  which  the  North  con 
temns,  should  it  not  apply  in  the  administration  of 
territory  "  acquired  by  treaty,  purchased  by  the  com 
mon  treasure,  or  conquered  by  the  common  valor  of 
the  country ' 7  f  And  yet  this  territory,  fit  only  for 
agriculture,  is  to  be  closed  to  Southern  settlers,  by  the 
Federal  power,  since  "  almost  [the]  entire  agricultural 
population  [of  the  South]  consists  of  negro  slaves,  and 
this  is  precisely  the  population  which  it  is  proposed  to 
exclude.  So  that  we  are  insulted  and  mocked  by  the 
offer  to  give  us  our  portion  of  the  common  property, 
coupled  with  a  condition  which  makes  it  impossible 


CHANGE  IN  POLITICAL  VIEWS          155 

for  us  to  use  it,  and  which  reserves  it  for  the  exclusive 
use  of  the  North." 

Upon  the  vital  point  involved  in  the  discussions  on 
the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill,  viz..  Can  Congress  exclude 
slavery  from  a  Territory?  Benjamin,  of  course,  is 
still  in  accord  with  Douglas.  No  ingenious  Freeport 
doctrine  has  yet  alienated  the  Southern  following  of 
the  "Little  Giant,"  and  he  and  Benjamin  can  agree 
that  l '  Congress  has  no  power  to  exclude  slavery  from 
the  common  territory  ;  it  cannot  delegate  it ;  and  the 
people  in  the  Territory  cannot  exercise  it  except  at  the 
time  when  they  form  their  constitution."  They  can 
unite  in  passing  a  bill  in  which,  "we  said  .  .  . 
that  we  transferred  to  the  people  of  that  Territory  the 
entire  power  to  control,  by  their  own  legislation,  their 
own  domestic  institutions,  subject  only  to  the  pro 
visions  of  the  Constitution ;  that  we  would  not  inter 
fere  with  them ;  that  they  might  do  as  they  pleased 
on  the  subject ;  that  the  Constitution  alone  should 
govern."  This  is  the  comfortable  doctrine  of  "squat 
ter  sovereignty,"  as  the  South  understood  it,  before 
Lincoln's  simple  question  found  and  penetrated  its 
weak  point,  so  that  Southerners  could  no  longer  shelter 
themselves  beneath  it. 

We  shall  not  pause  over  the  more  personal  portions 
of  the  speech,  having  but  a  temporary  interest.  Yet 
it  is  but  just  to  the  South  to  give  the  other  view,  now 
that  nearly  all  histories  are  (blatantly  in  some  and 
with  humility  in  others)  accounting  for  the  coming  on 
of  the  Civil  War  by  the  desperate  efforts  of  the 
"slave  power"  to  maintain  its  ascendancy.  After 
examining  the  motives  that  might  inspire  those  who 
now  seek  to  exclude  the  South  from  her  share  of  the 


156  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

common  territory,  he  determines  that  love  of  the 
negro  is  bat  a  mask.  They  do  not  act  consistently 
with  their  professions  of  desire  to  ameliorate  the  con 
dition  of  the  slave.  The  real  motive  is  the  desire  for 
political  strength  :  u  The  object  is  to  attain  such  power 
as  shall  put  these  parties  in  possession  of  sufficient 
representation,  in  both  branches  of  Congress,  to  change 
the  Federal  Constitution,  and  to  deprive  the  South  of 
that  representation  which  is  already  inadequate  to  pro 
tect  her  rights.  When  that  shall  have  been  done — 
when  she  is  reduced  to  a  feeble  minority,  utterly  in 
competent  to  move  hand  or  foot,  and  bound  subserv 
iently  to  the  will  of  the  North,  then  will  the  last  act 
of  the  drama  be  played  ;  and  then  will  the  Abolition 
sentiments  which  they  hide  now,  but  which  they  en 
tertain  in  their  heart  of  hearts,  be  developed  to  the 
country,  and  ruin  and  desolation  spread  over  fifteen  of 
the  states  of  this  Union.'7 

On  the  other  side,  what  is  the  interest  that  invig 
orates  the  determined  opposition  of  the  South? 
"  Property,  safety,  honor,  existence  itself,  depend  on 
the  decision  of  the  questions  which  are  now  pending 
in  the  Congress— property,  for  $2,000,000,000  cannot 
purchase  at  a  low  average  price  the  slaves  which  now 
belong  to  the  people  of  the  South,  whilst  no  human  cal 
culation  can  reach  the  estimate  of  the  destruction  of 
other  property  which  would  necessarily  be  involved  in 
any  measure  which  should  deprive  us  of  our  slaves  ; 
safety,  because  our  population,  now  kept  in  proper 
subjection,  peaceful  and  laborious,  would  be  converted 
into  an  idle,  reckless,  criminal  population,  eager  for 
rapine  and  murder,  led  on  to  their  foul  purposes  by 
inflamed  passions, — passions  inflamed  by  fanatical 


CHANGE  IN  POLITICAL  VIEWS         157 

emissaries  from  another  portion  of  a  common  country 
who  formed  a  common  government  to  cherish  broth 
erly  feelings ;  honor,  because  we  should  be  degraded 
from  our  position  of  free,  sovereign,  self-dependent 
states,  into  a  servile  subserviency  to  Northern  will ;  ex 
istence,  aye,  existence  itself,  because  the  history  of 
Hayti  is  written  in  characters  so  black,  so  dark,  so 
prominent,  that  we  cannot  be  ignorant  of  the  fate  that 
awaits  us  if  measures  similar  to  those  which  have  pro. 
duced  that  result  there  are  also  to  be  inaugurated  in 
our  Southern  states. " 

With  all  of  his  distrust  of  the  ultimate  designs  of 
the  Eepublicans,  Mr.  Benjamin  pleads  for  an  adjust 
ment  of  existing  difficulties  under  the  Constitution 
rather  than  outside  of  it.  He  was  too  sensible  not  to 
perceive  that  there  was  a  real  and  imminent  danger  in 
the  situation,  despite  the  insulting  intimation  that 
"the  South  couldn't  be  kicked  out  of  the  Union"  ; 
for  he  knew  how  earnest  were  his  people ;  and  he 
showed  very  convincingly,  that  if  once  established 
as  independent  of  the  United  States,  the  Southern 
states  would  inevitably  get  from  the  northern  neighbor 
much  more  effective  provisions  for  the  return  of 
fugitive  slaves.  The  United  States  would  need  ex 
tradition  treaties  and  commercial  advantages,  for 
which  the  new  power  could  drive  a  bargain  to  suit  her 
self.  But  he  also  knew  two  other  things  that  too  rarely 
came  into  the  calculations  of  the  fire-eaters.  The  first 
was  that  the  South  was  not  l  i  equal  in  population  or 
military  strength  with  the  North."  The  second  was 
that  there  could  be  no  peaceable  dissolution  of  the 
Union,  whatever  one  might  believe  about  the  theoret 
ical  right  of  withdrawing  from  the  "Federal  com- 


158  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

pact. ' '  The  people  of  the  South,  he  said,  < i  appeal  to 
the  guarantees  of  the  Constitution,  and  when  those 
guarantees  shall  fail,  and  not  till  then,  will  the  in 
jured,  outraged  South  throw  her  sword  into  the  scale 
of  her  rights,  and  appeal  to  the  God  of  battles  to  do 
her  justice.  I  say  her  sword,  because  I  am  not  one 
of  those  who  believe  in  the  possibility  of  a  peaceful 
disruption  of  the  Union.  It  cannot  come  until  every 
possible  means  of  conciliation  has  been  exhausted ; 
it  cannot  come  until  every  angry  passion  shall  have 
been  roused ;  it  cannot  come  until  brotherly  feeling 
shall  have  been  converted  into  deadly  hate  ;  and  then, 
sir,  with  feelings  embittered  by  the  consciousness  of 
injustice,  or  passions  high  wrought  and  inflamed, 
dreadful  will  be  the  internecine  war  that  must  ensue. ' ' 
At  the  conclusion  of  his  speech,  Mr.  Benjamin  re 
viewed  the  political  conditions,  somewhat  as  he  had 
done  in  the  letter  of  1855,  but  more  in  detail — how 
there  were  nineteen  Whig  senators  when  he  took  his 
seat  in  1853 ;  how  this  minority  had  been  rent  into 
' '  fragments  that  no  mortal  skill  could  ever  re-unite, 
for  the  cement  of  a  common  principle  is  wanting  ' '  ; 
how  that  spurious  and  illusive  party  called  Know 
Nothing  had  risen,  and  had  already  displayed  senti 
ments  inimical  to  the  South  ;  how,  finally,  in  this  per 
plexity  he  had  sought  the  only  rational  solution  in  join 
ing  the  Democratic  party.  It  was  the  natural  and  in 
evitable  conclusion  to  be  reached  by  a  practical  man. 
And  it  was  less  narrow  and  less  dangerous  than  the 
formation  of  any  new  sectional  party.  This  was  the 
only  chance  of  staving  off  for  four  years  that  conflict 
which  Benjamin  already  deemed  almost  inevitable, 
but  from  which  he  shrank  as  long  as  shrinking  could 


CHANGE  IN  POLITICAL  VIEWS          159 

not  be  construed  into  disloyalty  to  the  people  whose 
interests  he  represented. 

Though  Mr.  Benjamin's  conversion  to  Democracy — 
if  it  could  be  called  a  conversion  when  he  still  openly 
worshiped  the  place  where  the  Whig  gods  had  stood, 
and  as  openly  said  he  was  a  Democrat  only  because 
there  were  no  more  Whigs — had  been  anticipated,  it 
nevertheless  called  forth  much  comment.  i  i  There 
was  much  rejoicing,"  says  the  True  Delta,  "  over  the 
repentant  sinner  in  the  United  States  Senate;  and 
General  Cass  did  not  disdain  to  welcome  the  Louisiana 
senator  into  the  ranks  of  a  party  he  had  for  so  many 
years  lustily  opposed."  The  more  friendly  papers 
remarked  the  earnestness,  animation,  and  powerful 
effect  with  which  he  spoke  ;  and  only  a  few  representing 
the  forlorn  hope  of  obstinate  Whigs,  indulged  in  criti 
cism  whose  acerbity  was  a  test  of  their  sense  of  the  loss 
sustained  by  the  great  party. 

True  to  his  promise,  Benjamin  went  into  the  cam 
paign  of  1856  with  great  vigor.  He  spoke  first '  in 
New  Orleans  at  a  tremendous  meeting  held  in  Odd 
Fellows'  Hall,  September  23d  ;  and  then  on  several 
other  occasions  in  the  city.  Moreover,  he  subjected 
himself  to  the  great  fatigue  and  discomfort  of  a  tour 
through  the  state  and  appeared  in  a  score  or  more  of 
the  towns.  The  speech  at  Odd  Fellows'  Hall  was  the 
finest  effort,  for  it  had  to  be  a  justification  of  his 
change  of  party  before  a  critical  audience  and  in  a 
city  then  too  often  terrorized  by  the  violence  of  the 
Know  Nothings.  His  arguments  we  need  not  con 
sider  ;  they  cover  the  same  ground  as  before ;  but, 
strange  as  it  may  seem,  this  address  was  a  revelation 

1  Delta,  True  Delta,  and  Courier,  Sept.  24. 


160  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

to  some  of  his  fellow  citizens  who  had  never  heard 
Benjamin  on  a  political  topic  that  called  for  the  exer 
cise  of  his  full  powers.  The  hall  was  crowded  to  the 
doors,  and  many  stood  in  adjoining  rooms,  hoping 
to  hear  where  they  could  not  see.  And  even  the 
atrabiliar  True  Delta  is  amazed  and  lulled  into  sullen 
submission  by  his  admitted  eloquence,  while  the  Delta 
cannot  restrain  its  admiration  of  the  orator,  though 
somewhat  critical  of  the  policy  he  advocated  :  i  i  We 
were  proud  of  him  as  a  Southern  man,  proud  of  his  fine 
capacity,  energy,  and  pluck.  .  .  .  Mr.  Benjamin 
is  usually  a  quiet  and  conversational  speaker,  gifted 
with  those  peculiar  graces  which  render  the  eloquence 
of  the  bar  almost  an  eloquence  per  se ;  and  we  always 
considered  that  he  possessed  the  analytic  capacity  and 
firm  qualities  of  an  Erskine  rather  than  the  vivid  and 
impetuous  inspiration  of  a  Sheridan.  But  we  were 
undeceived  last  night.  The  calm  logician  can  become 
the  effective  rhetorician  when  he  pleases,  and  the 
Hyperides  of  the  Louisiana  bar  to  our  amazement  and 
delight  suddenly  grew  into  the  proportions  of  a  Demos 
thenes,  and  swept  the  hearts  of  his  audience  as  a 
minstrel  might  smite  the  chords  of  a  harp.  .  .  . 
Mr.  Benjamin  .  .  .  possesses  enough  of  the  mens 
divinior  to  irradiate  and  beautify  his  ponderous  knowl 
edge  j  and  the  man  who  is  unequaled  in  the  Supreme 
Court  at  Washington  need  entertain  very  little  fear  of 
rivalry  on  the  stump  in  Louisiana.7' 

In  the  roar  of  the  tumult  that  came  four  years  later, 
we  are  apt  to  forget  how  bitter  was  the  campaign  of 
1856,  how  very  near  our  ship  of  state  steered  to  the 
breakers.  Failure  to  elect  Buchanan  then  would  have 
been  the  signal  for  disruption  of  the  Union  almost  as 


CHANGE  IN  POLITICAL  VIEWS         161 

certainly  as  was  the  failure  to  elect  Douglas  in  1860. 
Though  plenteously  besprinkled  with  the  choicest 
epithets  of  loathing  by  Whigs  who  had  chosen  the 
Democratic  party,  Fillmore,  who  had  allowed  himself 
to  be  seduced  by  the  Know  Nothings,  was  probably 
the  unconscious  instrument  of  salvation.  His  can 
didacy  was  more  harmful  to  Fremont  than  to  Bu 
chanan.  The  result  is  a  matter  of  history  ;  but  it 
was  only  by  a  narrow  margin  that  the  Democrat  was 
chosen,  while  the  campaign  brought  out  sharp  divisions 
between  men  who  had  formerly  acted  in  the  same 
party  and  who  were  all  too  soon  to  face  each  other  in  a 
sterner  contest.  With  all  of  this  it  has  struck  the 
writer  as  very  remarkable  that,  throughout  the  can 
vass,  Mr.  Benjamin  for  once  escapes  hostile  criticism 
except  of  the  most  dignified  kind.  The  Know  Noth 
ings  tried  to  break  up  the  Odd  Fellows'  Hall  meeting, 
and  hustled  the  audience  as  it  dispersed ;  but  none  of 
the  scurrility  which  had  not  infrequently  marked 
references  to  Mr.  Benjamin  appears  now.  Elected  as 
a  Whig,  he  had  in  the  midst  of  his  term  become  a 
Democrat  and  retained  his  seat :  he  was  certainly 
peculiarly  vulnerable.  But  his  motives  seem  to  have 
been  so  obvious  and  so  universally  approved  that  there 
were  few  to  find  fault. 

After  the  battle  was  won,  however,  and  the  South 
breathed  once  more,  bitterness  again  tinged  many  of 
the  references  to  him  in  the  local  press.  His  success 
irked  the  envious ;  but  above  all,  he  could  not  be  for 
given  for  being  in  the  good  graces  of  Mr.  Slidell, 
and  practically  assured  of  succeeding  himself  in  the 
Senate. 

At  Washington  Benjamin  was  a  frequent  speaker, 


162  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

and  particularly  ready  to  stand  to  his  guns  whenever 
the  South  needed  defense.  After  the  great  Kansas 
speech  of  1856,  his  reputation  was  as  firmly  estab 
lished  there  as  at  home.  And  since  that  state, 
with  her  rival  constitutions,  occupied  the  attention  of 
the  whole  Union  throughout  these  troublous  years,  it 
is  not  surprising  to  find  Benjamin  making  it  the 
theme  of  another  notable  speech  on  March  11,  1858. l 
It  is  ostensibly  a  plea  for  the  admission  of  Kansas 
under  the  Lecompton  Constitution,  a  document  which 
we  now  know  to  have  been  distinctly  misrepresenta- 
tive  of  popular  sentiment  in  Kansas,  proved  to  be 
a  fraud  soon  afterward,  and  hopelessly  lost.  The 
law  of  nature,  as  so  many  have  remarked,  forbade 
slavery  in  Kansas  ;  and  only  blind  partisanship  could 
defend  the  attempt  to  force  this  constitution  upon  the 
people.  It  is  surprising  to  find  a  man  usually  fair- 
minded  and  not  given  to  narrow  sectionalism  defend 
ing  the  course  pursued  by  the  pro-slavery  party  in 
Kansas  and  by  the  administration.  And  the  only  ex 
cuse  we  can  make,  a  poor  one,  is  resolute  loyalty  to 
what  was  considered  the  need  of  the  South,  through 
thick  and  thin. 

But  though  we  cannot  approve  the  advocacy  of 
the  Lecompton  Constitution,  this  speech  is  another 
admirable  statement  of  Southern  views  on  slavery, 
and  contains  many  eloquent  passages.  Benjamin  took 
occasion  to  review  the  status  of  slavery  under  the 
English  common  law ;  indeed,  three-fourths  of  the 
speech  is  on  that  topic,  not  on  Kansas  at  all,  whose 
Lecompton  Constitution  gets  but  scant  notice  near  the 
close.  It  will  be  sufficient  here  to  quote  his  prelim- 

1  Globe,  1857-1858,  Part  II.,  p.  1065  et.  seq. 


CHANGE  IN  POLITICAL  VIEWS          163 

inary  statement  of  the  points  he  proposes  to  establish, 
in  order  to  show  the  character  of  the  argument : 

"Mr.  President,  the  thirteen  colonies,  which,  on 
the  4th  of  July,  1776,  asserted  their  independence, 
were  British  colonies,  governed  by  British  laws.  Our 
ancestors  in  their  emigration  to  this  country  brought 
with  them  the  common  law  of  England  as  their  birth 
right.  .  .  .  If  I  can  show  .  .  .  that  the  na 
tion  thus  exercising  sovereign  power  over  these  thir 
teen  colonies  did  establish  slavery  in  them,  did  main 
tain  and  protect  the  institution,  did  originate  and 
carry  on  the  slave-trade,  did  support  and  foster  that 
trade;  that  it  forbade  the  colonies  permission  either 
to  emancipate  or  export  their  slaves ;  that  it  prohib 
ited  them  from  inaugurating  any  legislation  in  dimi 
nution  or  discouragement  of  the  institution, — nay, 
sir,  more,  if  at  the  date  of  our  Revolution  I  can  show 
that  African  slavery  existed  in  England  as  it  did  on 
this  continent,  if  I  can  show  that  slaves  were  sold 
upon  the  slave  mart,  in  the  Exchange  and  other  public 
places  of  resort  in  the  city  of  London  as  they  were 
on  this  continent,  then  I  shall  not  hazard  too  much  in 
the  assertion  that  slavery  was  the  common  law  of  the 
thirteen  states  of  the  Confederacy  at  the  time  they 
burst  the  bonds  that  united  them  to  the  mother 
country.77 

He  has  little  difficulty  in  presenting  a  strong  argu 
ment  to  establish  all  but  the  fact  of  real  existence  of 
slavery  in  England  after  Mansfield's  famous  decision 
of  1771  (Sommersett  case),  and  the  selling  of  slaves  in 
that  country.  The  latter  was  undoubtedly  common 
enough  in  one  way — the  sale  of  colonial  property, 
including  slaves,  the  slaves  held  in  the  colonies,  but 


164  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

the  actual  sale  taking  place  in  England.  He  then 
proceeds  to  demolish  the  rather  flimsy  arguments  of 
Fessenden,  Collainer,  and  Seward,  that  the  Constitu 
tion  does  not  recognize  slaves  as  property,  to  be  .held 
and  protected  as  securely  as  any  other  species  of 
property.  In  reply  to  Collamer' s  argument,  that 
because  a  peculiar  provision  was  made  for  slave  prop 
erty,  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  did  not  regard  it 
as  other  property,  but  as  a  thing  that  needed  some 
provision  other  property  did  not  need,  he  makes 
use  of  an  illustration  that  has  been  quoted  as  one  of 
the  few  passages  of  pure  ornament  in  his  usually 
very  businesslike  speeches  :  l  i  There  are  numerous 
illustrations  upon  this  point  [viz.,  that  where  no 
remedy  is  granted  by  the  law  of  a  state,  a  man  can 
not  have  title  to  his  property,  though  his  equitable 
right  may  be  unquestioned] — illustrations  furnished  by 
the  copyright  laws,  illustrations  furnished  by  the 
patent  laws.  Let  us  take  a  case,  one  that  appeals  to 
us  all.  There  lives  now  a  man  in  England  who  from 
time  to  time  sings  to  the  enchanted  ear  of  the  civi 
lized  world  strains  of  such  melody  that  the  charmed 
senses  seem  to  abandon  the  grosser  regions  of  earth, 
and  to  rise  to  purer  and  serener  regions  above.  God 
has  created  that  man  a  poet.  His  inspiration  is 
his ;  his  songs  are  his  by  right  divine  ;  they  are  his 
property,  so  recognized  by  human  law  ;  yet  here  in 
these  United  States  men  steal  Tennyson's  works  and 
sell  his  property  for  their  profit;  and  this  because^ 
in  spite  of  the  violated  conscience  of  the  nation,  we 
refuse  to  grant  him  protection  for  his  property.7' 

Though  Louisiana  could  not  but  be  proud  of  the  elo 
quence  of  her  senator,  attracting  national  attention, 


CHANGE  IN  POLITICAL  VIEWS          165 

there  were  many  factions  at  home  already  scheming  to 
prevent  his  reelection  on  the  approaching  expiration 
of  his  term.  The  True  Delta l  hails  with  delight  a 
report  that  Slidell  is  " setting  the  traps"  to  elect 
Eepresentative  J.  M.  Sandidge  as  his  successor, 
11  either  on  the  expiration  of  Colonel  Benjamin's  term 
of  office,  or  on  the  appointment  of  this  gentleman  to 
a  special  mission  to  Mexico,  of  which  there  is  some 
talk.'7  The  military  title  with  which  Benjamin  is 
here  dignified  is  meant  as  a  mark  of  the  editor's  su- 
preme  contempt,  and  is  as  fantastic  as  the  mission  to 
Mexico.  As  the  time  for  the  election  draws  nearer, 
the  same  paper  reports  that  Slidell  is  scheming  for  the 
Presidential  nomination,  and  to  that  end  seeks  for 
"Belniont  the  mission  to  Madrid,  and  for  his  col 
league,  Senator  Benjamin,  that  to  Mexico  or  France, 
the  latter  being,  it  is  said,  anxious  to  obtain  the 
greater  distinction  in  order  to  be  near  his  family, 
who  reside  in  the  French  capital.  Both  gentlemen 
are  of  the  Hebrew  faith,  as  is,  I  believe,  Senator 
Slidell  himself."  But  no  hope  remained  of  shunting 
Benjamin  off  on  a  diplomatic  track.  Several  inde 
pendent  candidates  for  the  senatorship  were  men 
tioned,  and  the  True  Delta  exclaimed,  that  if  such  a 
candidate  could  not  be  chosen,  "  then,  in  God's  name, 
let  Slidell  himself  be  chosen,  for  he  may  just  as  well 
have  two  votes  in  his  own  person  as  to  be  able,  on 
every  occasion,  to  command  the  servile  accompani 
ment  of  his  facile  coadjutor." 

The  opposition  to  Benjamin  seemed  very  formidable, 
and  his  political  record  was  jealously  scrutinized  to 
discover  vulnerable  spots.  The  public  was  not  al- 

1  April  30,  1857;  also  Feb.  2, 1858. 


166  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

lowed  to  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  he  was  a  Jew  and 
a  foreigner.  But  this  was  manifestly  insufficient  to 
prejudice  the  party  against  so  useful  a  leader.  The 
main  reliance  of  the  opposition  was  placed  upon  his 
connection  with  the  Houmas  land  claims ;  yet  that 
too,  though  assiduously  worked,  proved  no  more 
damaging  to  Benjamin  than  to  the  principal  rival  for 
the  senatorship,  J.  M.  Sandidge,  who  had  done  quite 
as  much  in  connection  with  the  Houmas  land  bill  in 
the  House  as  Benjamin  had  in  the  Senate.  The  Con 
gressional  investigation  of  the  case  was  not  com 
pleted  till  1860,  but  as  its  bearing  on  this  part  of 
Benjamin's  career  is  most  important,  we  shall  antici 
pate  so  far  as  to  present  a  resume  of  it  here. 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  discover  the  whole  truth 
about  the  Houmas  lands,  so  much  were  the  facts  dis 
torted  by  political  passions.  Thus  it  was  asserted 
even  by  newspapers  which  are  counted  conservative 
to-day,  such  as  the  New  York  Times,1  that  Slidell's 
holdings  in  these  lands  amounted  to  over  a  half  million 
dollars,  and  that  Benjamin  had  received  ten  thousand 
for  getting  the  bill  through  Congress.  Certain  of 
the  facts  in  the  case,  however,  can  be  established 
with  sufficient  ease  to  cast  discredit  on  these  charges. 
The  lands  in  question  lay  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Miss 
issippi  Eiver,  in  the  parishes  of  Iberviile  and  Ascen 
sion, — a  plantation  there  still  bears  that  name — and 
had  been  purchased  originally  from  the  Houmas 
Indians  in  1774  by  Conway  and  Latil,  with  the  sanc 
tion  of  the  Spanish  authorities.  The  original  grant, 
which  was  added  to,  ran  back  from  the  river  front  the 
usual  depth  of  forty  arpents.  Land  was  cheap  in 

1  March  24,  1859,  quoted  by  True  Delta,  March  29. 


CHANGE  IN  POLITICAL  VIEWS         167 

Louisiana  in  those  days  ;  in  fact,  Spain  was  only  too 
glad  to  entice  colonists  into  its  swamps  by  grants  of 
the  most  magnificent  extent  and  vaguest  limits. 
Hence  when  Conway,  in  1776,  told  the  Spanish  gov 
ernor  that  there  was  no  timber  on  his  tract,  or  for  two- 
score  arpents  back  of  it,  and  that  he  needed  timber 
for  plantation  purposes,  the  Spanish  surveyor  went 
upon  the  land,  marked  out  the  side  lines  of  the  orig 
inal  forty  arpents,  and  two  arpents  further  to  give  the 
direction.  That  was  the  all  but  universal  method  of 
surveying.  The  neighboring  proprietors  were  wit 
nesses,  and  signed  the  surveyor's  report  of  this  pro 
ceeding.  The  governor  granted  the  land,  and  Spanish 
and  French  authorities  found  no  fault  with  the  trans 
action,  which  was  indeed  not  unusual ;  nor  did  it 
seem  to  occur  to  them  that  there  might  ever  come  a 
day  when  people  would  wish  to  know  how  far  back 
the  new  grant  ran.  Conway  had  asked  for  "  all  of  the 
lands  back"  of  his  first  claim,  and  such  presumably 
was  the  intention  of  the  Spanish  governor.  But  did 
this,  as  was  quite  commonly  understood  in  such  grants, 
mean  that  those  side  lines,  which  the  surveyor  had 
run  out  only  for  two  additional  arpents  "  to  give  the 
direction,"  should  continue  to  run  until  they  met  the 
next  natural  boundary,  in  this  case  a  water  course  ? 
If  this  were  so,  then  these  lines  would  be  twenty  miles 
or  more  in  length. 

The  back  lands,  however,  were  of  no  special  value 
for  half  a  century  after  the  date  of  the  grant.  The 
claim  of  the  original  parties  had,  of  course,  passed 
into  various  hands.  And  as  no  particular  attention 
was  paid  to  the  lands,  squatters  settled  unmolested  on 
certain  portions  of  them.  Meanwhile  the  United 


168  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

States  had  tacitly  acknowledged  the  validity  of  the 
title  soon  after  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana,  but 
Congress  had  declined  to  pass  a  specific  act  on  the 
subject.  Then  an  agent  of  the  Land  Office,  acting 
hastily,  sold  some  of  the  lands  to  squatters  and  set 
tlers  (1835),  and  there  were  more  complications,  since 
some  of  these  purchasers  gave  up  their  interests  when 
the  title  was  questioned,  while  others  held  on.  At 
length  efforts  were  made  to  have  Congress  quiet  the 
titles  of  those  who  represented  the  original  grantees, 
of  whom  Senator  Slidell  was  one — his  holdings  under 
the  claim  amounting  to  about  eight  thousand  acres, 
assessed  at  $15,000.  A  bill  for  that  purpose  was  in 
troduced  in  the  second  session  of  the  Thirty -fourth 
Congress,  but  not  acted  on  for  lack  of  time.  The  same 
bill,  favorably  reported  by  the  Committee  on  Private 
Land  Claims,  of  which  Benjamin  was  chairman,  passed 
the  first  session  of  the  next  Congress,  as  one  section 
in  a  bill  to  settle  certain  private  land  claims  in  Mis 
souri  and  elsewhere. 

This  measure  did  not  give  absolute  title  to  the 
Houmas  claimants  as  against  the  other  settlers  on  the 
laud,  but  provided  that  suit  should  be  instituted 
within  two  years  by  all  who  questioned  the  rights  of 
the  grantees,  and  that  in  case  of  failure  to  show  a 
better  title,  the  area  in  litigation  should  be  held  as 
rightfully  the  property  of  the  latter  or  their  present 
representatives.  As  soon  as  the  fact  of  the  passage 
of  this  bill  became  known  in  Louisiana  there  was  great 
excitement  among  the  many  persons  whose  lands  lay 
in  what  was  known  to  be  included  in  the  Houmas 
district.  Mass  meetings  were  held,  and  the  rising 
flame  was  fanned  by  the  many  enemies  of  Slidell.  Pro- 


CHANGE  IN  POLITICAL  VIEWS         169 

tests  were  sent  to  Washington,  and  Benjamin  himself, 
in  the  closing  weeks  of  Congress,  introduced  a  joint 
resolution  to  suspend  the  action  of  the  law  till  the  end 
of  the  succeeding  session,  since  the  time  was  too  short 
for  proper  investigation  immediately.  On  January  4, 
1860,  Robert  Tooinbs  presented  another  petition  against 
the  law,  and  after  some  discussion,  the  whole  matter  of 
the  Houmas  lands  and  the  law  of  June  2, 1858,  was,  on 
Benjamin's  suggestion,  referred  to  a  special  committee 
for  thorough  investigation.  On  May  29,  1860,  the  re 
port  of  this  committee,  of  which  Toombs  was  chair 
man,  was  taken  up  and  debated,  then  and  later,  at 
great  length. 

The  findings  was  adverse  to  the  Houmas  grantees, 
and  Toombs  and  Benjamin,  in  particular,  waxed  warm 
in  Congress  over  the  matter.  Benjamin's  speech  was 
remarkably  subtle,  but  for  once  he  seems  to  have  been 
seeking  to  defend  a  doubtful  position,  and  one  in 
whose  defense  he  might  lose  much,  and  could  gain 
nothing.  For  Toombs' s  report  had  recommended  but 
one  change  of  any  consequence  in  the  law  as  it  stood, 
and  the  concession  of  that  point  by  Benjamin  would 
have  saved  him  from  unjust  suspicions  without  preju 
dice  to  public  policy  or  to  any  bona  fide  rights  of  in 
dividuals.  This  change  was  to  the  effect  that  the 
Houmas  grantees  as  well  as  all  other  parties  whose 
titles  were  in  doubt,  should  begin  suit  against  the  gov 
ernment  for  recovery  of  the  land,  within  two  years, 
and  that  on  failure  to  establish  the  title  it  should 
revert  to  the  government.  But,  a  little  vain  of  his 
familiarity  with  Spanish  and  French  law,  thoroughly 
convinced  from  his  own  investigations  that  the  Houmas 
grants  were  valid  (in  1840  he  had  been  employed  in  an 


170  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

important  case  involving  the  examination  of  this  title),1 
and  angered  by  the  foolish  accusations  against  him  and 
by  Toonibs's  tactless  and  somewhat  bullying  manner, 
Benjamin  fought  to  the  bitter  end.  In  spite  of  all  his 
ingenuity  and  eloquence,  the  report  was  accepted,  and 
the  amendment  proposed  by  the  blunt  and  rather  reck 
less  Georgian  was  passed. 

Those  who  were  in  Washington  with  Benjamin  at 
the  time  knew  that  his  connection  with  the  Houmas 
affair  had  been  in  no  way  dishonorable,  although  most 
unfortunate  and  perhaps  unwise.  Men  of  the  stamp 
of  the  Bayards,  of  Davis,  of  L.  Q.  C.  Lamar,  and  of 
Mason,  knew  Benjamin,  and  their  regard  for  him  was 
not  disturbed  by  the  charges  of  corruption  made  by  the 
press,  delighted  to  have  so  easy  a  theme.  But  this 
same  press  spread  the  reports  among  those  who  did 
not  know  and  could  not  discover  the  truth,  who  took 
insinuations  for  proved  facts,  and  who  held  up  their 
hands  in  horror.  The  echoes  of  the  Houmas  scandal 
followed  Benjamin  almost  all  the  way  through  his  sub 
sequent  career  in  America  j  and  Mr.  Slidell  was  never 
referred  to  by  the  New  Orleans  True  Delta  otherwise 
than  as  "  Houmas  John."  2 

When  the  Louisiana  legislature  met  in  January,  1859, 
more  or  less  garbled  accounts  of  these  facts  had  run  the 
rounds  of  the  press.  It  is  probable  that  private  sources 
of  information,  nevertheless,  enabled  the  members  to 
form  a  fairly  just  judgment.  When  the  Democratic 
caucus  met,  it  had  a  stormy  time  deciding  on  a  candi- 

1  Moore  vs.  Hampton,  3  La.  Annual  Rep.,  p.  192. 

2  For  the  full  record  of  the  affair,  see  the  Congressional  Glole, 
1859-1860,  Part  I,  pp.  323,  324;  Part  III,  p.  2423,  etseq.;  p.  2588, 
etxeq.;  p.  2674.     Cf.  Delta,   Apr.  13,    1859;   True  Delta,  Apr.  3,4, 
and  11,  and  June  9,  1860. 


CHANGE  IN  POLITICAL  VIEWS          171 

date.  In  a  full  meeting,  thirty-six  votes  were  needed 
to  establish  the  choice.  After  sitting  all  day,  cast 
ing  forty  fruitless  ballots,  the  caucus  adjourned  at 
six  o'clock  to  meet  again  at  seven.  On  their  reas 
sembling,  the  struggle  was  resumed  ;  and  on  the  forty- 
second  ballot  the  vote  stood:  Benjamin,  25;  Sandidge, 
23  ;  Gray,  19 ;  Parham,  1.  The  members  then  ad 
journed  till  next  morning  at  ten  o'clock,  when,  after 
more  hopeless  voting  till  three,  they  agreed  to  take  one 
more  ballot,  and  in  the  event  of  failure  to  secure  a  can 
didate  on  whom  they  could  unite,  to  cease  balloting  in 
caucus.  This  vote  gave  thirty-five  for  Saudidge,  just 
one  short  of  the  requisite  number.  With  supreme 
daring,  the  Benjamin  men  had  cast  most  of  their  votes 
for  Sandidge,  presumably  to  convince  the  latter' s 
friends  that  there  was  no  hope  for  them  in  any  event. 
Then  the  Benjamin  faction  proposed  to  continue  the 
voting,  in  spite  of  the  agreement  just  reached,  to  which 
the  other  factions  refused  to  consent,  and  left  the  cau 
cus.  Assembling  again  at  six  o'clock  with  their  frag 
ment  of  a  party,  fifty  members  being  present,  Benja 
min's  supporters  elected  their  man  on  the  first  ballot, 
the  vote  standing  twenty-six  for  Benjamin,  twenty-three 
for  Sandidge,  and  one  scattering.  Benjamin  was  de 
clared  the  nominee  of  the  party  ;  but  the  outlook  was 
not  very  cheering,  since  fifty-seven  votes  were  requisite 
for  election  in  the  legislature,  and  he  had  so  far 
shown  nothing  like  that  strength.  To  the  consterna 
tion  of  the  opposition,  when  the  first  vote  was  taken  in 
the  Assembly,  it  gave  Benjamin  fifty-seven,  Gray  fifty, 
and  Eandell  Hunt,  the  Know  Nothing  candidate,  five. 
Said  the  True  Delta:  " George  Wooley  was  the  only 
Know  Nothing  from  the  city  of  New  Orleans  who  voted 


172  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

for  Benjamin,  and  when  the  vote  was  given,  it  aston 
ished  and  embittered  against  him  all  his  colleagues 
from  the  city.  This  vote  was  the  last  Know  Nothing 
vote  given,  and  elected  Benjamin.  The  friends  of 
Sandidge  all  went  home  with  long  faces,  most  of  them 
swearing  that  north  Louisiana  should  have  the  senator 
to  be  elected  two  years  hence. ' '  And  1 1  two  years 
hence  "  there  were  no  more  senators  of  the  United  States 
to  be  elected  from  Louisiana.  The  Picayune  describes 
this  as  "  the  most  excited  contest "  for  senator  ever  held 
in  the  state ;  while  the  Delta,  now  favorable  to  Ben 
jamin,  remarks  :  "  Without  designing  to  be  invidious, 
we  cannot  refrain  from  congratulating  the  people  of 
this  state  at  the  result.  ...  As  a  profound  law 
yer,  Mr.  Benjamin  has  stood  for  years  at  the  head  of  a 
bar  that  has  no  superior  in  the  Union  ;  as  an  orator, 
his  reputation  is  as  wide  as  the  country  itself,  while 
as  a  man  his  life  has  been  singularly  pure.  His  popu 
larity  is  best  proved  by  the  fact  that  among  all  the  vari 
ous  offices  to  which  he  has  aspired — commencing  in  the 
House  of  Eepresentatives  of  this  state,  passing  through 
the  Senate  and  constitutional  convention,  until  he  at 
tained  his  present  high  station — we  believe  he  has 
never  once  known  defeat."  Still,  this  last  election 
was  won  by  the  narrowest  margin.1 

1  The  press  teems  with  items  of  this  contest ;  the  best  accounts 
are  in  the  True  Delta,  Jan.  15,  23,  25,  and  26,  1859,  and  the  Delta 
and  the  Picayune,  Jan.  26. 


CHAPTER  VII 

IN  AND  OUT  OF  THE  SENATE 

THE  perilous  contest  for  reelection  in  Louisiana  had 
not  been  allowed  to  distract  Benjamin's  attention  from 
his  duties  in  the  Senate,  where  his  skill  as  a  debater 
and  his  attractive  personality  were  steadily  increasing 
his  power.  Fond  of  social  amusements,  much  given 
to  playing  cards,  though  not  a  rabid  gambler,  he  was 
a  general  favorite,  and  had  many  friends  among  the 
very  best  set  in  Washington  ;  but  his  principle,  in 
friendships,  seemed  to  be  "  entangling  alliances  with 
none. ' '  As  the  storm  of  the  presidential  election  ap 
proached,  party  and  sectional  lines  were  drawn  closer, 
and  men  found  themselves  attracted  to  or  repelled  from 
persons  about  whom  they  had  felt  very  differently  here 
tofore.  Some  few  Southerners  continued  to  the  last — 
nay,  even  afterward, — on  friendly  terms  with  Northern 
colleagues  whose  politics  they  must  fight  relentlessly. 
Though  there  was  often  courtesy  still  there  could 
be  little  intimacy ;  for  to  both  parties,  if  for  very 
different  reasons,  the  Ohio  seemed  a  Phlegethon.  But 
Benjamin  was  remarkable  all  through  life  for  having 
no  close  friends.  He  was  personally  so  affable  and 
uniformly  courteous  that  he  rarely  offended  even  vio 
lent  partisans  on  the  other  side,  and  had  most  friendly 
relations  with  nearly  everybody ;  but  scarcely  one  of 
the  senators,  North  or  South,  could  claim  to  be  really 
intimate  with  him.  Perhaps  he  was  nearer  this  relation 
with  the  Bayards  than  with  any  other  family.  There 


174  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

is  hardly  a  more  remarkable  instance  in  our  history 
than  that  of  successive  generations  of  Bayards  holding 
the  best  of  Delaware's  national  offices,  and  always 
with  the  highest  credit,  for  almost  a  century.  At  this 
particular  time  James  A.  Bayard  was  senator  from 
Delaware,  a  staunch  and  honorable  champion  of  what 
he  held  to  be  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  states, 
rights  now  endangered  by  the  spread  of  Bepublican- 
ism.  He  was  an  enthusiastic  admirer  of  Benjamin's 
eloquence  ;  and  association  in  the  Senate  soon  brought 
about  the  most  pleasant  relations  with  the  family. 

The  next  Bayard,  Thomas  F.,  later  our  Minister  to 
England,  gives  some  interesting  reminiscences  :  *  "I 
first  saw  Mr.  Benjamin  about  1856,  at  Washington, 
where  he  was  a  senator  of  the  United  States  from  the 
state  of  Louisiana,  and  most  successfully  conducting  a 
leading  practice  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States.  I  was  on  a  visit  to  my  father,  and  at  his  house 
I  met  Mr.  Benjamin,  who,  together  with  other  leading 
members  of  the  Senate,  including  Pearce  and  Pratt  of 
Maryland,  Hunter  and  Mason  of  Virginia,  Bingham 
of  North  Carolina,  Butler  of  South  Carolina,  Mallory 
of  Florida,  etc.,  was  a  frequent  guest.  Benjamin's 
personal  appearance  was  not  at  all  impressive, — short, 
fat,  and  'pudgy'  in  figure,  with  few  or  none  of  the 
features  which  physiology  or  phrenology  teach  us  to 
expect  in  individuals  possessed  of  strong  moral  and 
intellectual  characters ; — and  then  a  half  smile  about 
his  mouth,  that  sometimes  seemed  to  degenerate  into 
a  simper,  did  not  increase  confidence.  His  manner, 
however,  was  most  attractive, — gentle,  sympathetic, 
and  absolutely  unaffected,  and  this  restored  confidence  ; 

1  MS.  notes  copied  by  Mrs.  Hilles  ;  also  the  letters  cited  below. 


IK  AND  OUT  OF  THE  SENATE          175 

for  he  was  endowed  with  a  voice  of  singular  musical 
timbre,  high  pitched,  but  articulate,  resonant,  and 
sweet.  He  excelled  in  conversation,  with  an  easy  flow 
of  diction,  embellished  by  a  singular  mastery  of  lan 
guages  at  the  base  of  which  lay  the  Latin  and  its  fibres 
of  the  French  and  Spanish.  All  this  gave  grace  and 
breadth  to  his  conversation,  enriched  by  anecdote  and 
playful  humor  and  gentle  philosophy.  He  certainly 
shone  in  social  life  as  a  refined,  genial,  and  charming 
companion.  To  my  mother  and  her  young  daughters 
at  her  tea  table  he  was  an  ever- welcome  guest,  and  as 
a  consummate  player  of  whist,  he  was  equally  com 
panionable  to  my  father." 

With  the  writer  of  this  comment,  Benjamin  soon 
struck  up  a  friendship,  and  the  fruits  thereof  most  ap 
preciated  by  us  are  certain  letters  that  passed  between 
them  from  time  to  time,  and  which  are  almost  the 
only  letters  available  except  those  in  the  hands  of 
his  own  family.  One  of  the  earliest  contains  some 
remarks  about  Seward,  for  whom  Benjamin  had  a 
most  cordial  hatred  that  polite  manners  hardly  veiled. 
Mr.  Bayard  had  written  to  express  the  approval  of 
his  father  and  himself  on  the  latest  of  Benj  amin's  ex 
positions  of  Southern  principles  and  his  denunciation 
of  the  unscrupulous  agitation  of  the  Eepublicans,  and 
Benjamin  replied,  May  3,  1858  : 

"MY  DEAR  SIR:— Maybe  you  think  I  have  taken 
my  full  time  to  answer  your  kind  favor  of  24th  March, 
and  certainly  appearances  are  against  me ;  but  I  as 
sure  you  the  delay  has  arisen  only  from  my  desire  to 
do  something  more  than  write  a  few  hurried  lines,  and 
until  now  I  have  been  utterly  unable  to  do  so.  I 
closed  my  last  cases  for  the  term  in  the  Supreme  Court 


176  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

on  Friday,  and  now  hope  to  bring  up  the  arrears  of 
my  correspondence,  which  has  suffered  terribly.  I  am 
of  course  very  much  gratified  that  you  were  pleased 
with  my  speech,  and  especially  that  you  found  in  it 
anything  new  to  you.  I  believe  that  the  great  error 
of  the  South  has  been  in  supineness,  in  neglect  to  meet 
and  expose  fallacies  which  to  her  appeared  too  shallow 
to  serve  any  purpose  of  her  enemies.  But  the  older 
we  get,  the  better  satisfied  we  become  that  no  state 
ment  of  fact  or  principle,  however  monstrous,  is  with 
out  some  influence.  A  generous  mind  will  repel  with 
scorn  any  imputation  of  dishonor  against  a  person  of 
tried  integrity,  yet  if  to-morrow  a  newspaper  should 
publish  a  charge  of  bribery  against  the  Chief  Justice, 
some  one  would  be  found  to  believe  it,  at  all  events  to 
suspect  that  it  might  be  true.1  Now  Seward  acts  on 
this  principle,  and  I  charged  him  with  it  in  a  speech 
made  four  years  ago  on  the  Kansas  question.  You 
speak  of  shame  on  his  part — why,  I  had  scarcely 
finished  my  speech  when  he  said  to  me,  '  Come,  Ben 
jamin,  give  me  a  segar,  and  I  won't  be  mad  with 
you.'  .  .  . 

"Please  present  my  best  regards  and  remembrances 
to  your  mother  and  sisters,  and  tell  Miss  Mabel  that  I 
insist  she  shall  send  for  her  portrait  if  she  values  my 
peace  of  mind.  Her  father's  pride  in  it  is  intolerable, 
and  he  turns  a  deaf  ear  to  every  suggestion  that  I  will 
have  a  better  one  made  if  he  will  give  me  the  one  he 
now  has  for  a  model." 

With  all  of  his  colleagues  Benjamin  was  on  terms  at 
least  of  mutual  forbearance.  Even  his  enemies  did  not 
become  angry  with  him  personally,  and  he  was  so 
skilful  a  diplomatist  that  he  frequently  got  what  he 
wanted  even  from  them.  Indeed,  he  was  in  some  ways 
well  fitted  for  that  mission  to  Spain  for  which  his 
name  was  mentioned ;  but  a  diplomatic  post  had  not 
1  See  Chapter  I  for  Benjamin's  own  experience. 


IN  AND  OUT  OF  THE  SENATE          177 

sufficient  attraction  for  him.  Though  the  Spanish 
Minister  would  always  have  occupation  enough  in  set 
tling  petty  but  irritating  filibustering  difficulties,  the 
Senate  offered  greater  and  more  congenial  opportuni 
ties  for  his  energies  and  talent. 

Yet  good  nature  alone  could  not  always  suffice  to 
preserve  at  once  friendly  relations  with  rude  antago 
nists  and  his  own  self-respect.  It  was  in  the  Senate 
that  there  occurred  a  little  incident  of  which  much 
was  made  by  the  press, 1  though  in  itself  trivial  enough. 

Jefferson  Davis,  at  that  time  senator  from  Missis 
sippi,  was  in  very  bad  health,  and  the  distress  of  his 
disease  made  him  irritable  and  impatient  of  opposi 
tion.  During  a  debate  on  the  army  appropriation 
bill,  June,  1858,  Senator  Benjamin  made  a  remark 
which  Davis  corrected  in  a  very  ill-natured  and  super 
cilious  manner.  The  doughty  Louisianian  quietly  re 
peated  his  statement  in  another  form  and  Davis 
sneered  again,  adding  that  he  considered  what  the 
former  had  said  as  an  "  attempt  to  misrepresent  a 
very  plain  remark."  There  were  more  words  which 
did  no  credit  to  Mr.  Davis,  and  which  gossip  reported 
in  less  agreeable  style  than  we  find  them  in  the  of 
ficial  report  of  the  Congressional  Globe.  He  com 
pletely  lost  his  temper,  while  Benjamin,  resenting  what 
had  been  said,  maintained  his  position,  in  a  dignified 
way,  and  declined  to  pursue  the  subject  further  in  the 
Senate.  Of  what  followed  the  Globe  in  its  account  of 
Davis7  s  apologetic  explanation,  before  that  body,  gives 
only  a  hint. 

1E.  g.,  Delta,  June  16, 1858;  Picayune,  and  True  Delta,  June  16th; 
and  for  the  account  in  the  Globe,  probably  toned  down,  see  1857- 
1858,  Part  III,  p.  2780,  et  seq.,  and  p.  2823. 


178  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

As  is  quite  well  known,  there  was  only  one  way  of 
arranging  such  matters  between  gentlemen  in  those 
days,  and  accordingly  rumor  reported  all  sorts  of 
things  about  the  duel  involving  the  two  leaders.  The 
most  accurate  account  is  that  furnished  in  some 
private  notes  which  were  taken  by  Benjamin's  warm 
friend,  Thomas  F.  Bayard:  "Benjamin  peremptorily 
challenged  Jefferson  Davis  for  rude  language  in  debate 
and  brought  the  note  to  my  father  in  the  session  to  be 
copied  and  delivered.  My  father  handed  the  note  to 
Davis  in  the  cloak-room  of  the  Senate.  He  read  it 
and  at  once  tore  it  up,  and  said,  i  I  will  make  this  all 
right  at  once.  I  have  been  wholly  wrong. '  [He] 
walked  back  to  his  desk  in  the  Senate,  and  on  the 
first  opportunity  rose  and  made  the  most  distinct  with 
drawal  of  what  he  had  said,  and  regretted  any  offense 
most  amply.  No  one  in  the  Senate  but  my  father 
knew  what  had  called  forth  from  Davis  this  apology  ; 
for  Benjamin  had  sat  down  in  silence  when  Davis 
had  made  the  rude  interruption.  But  writing  in 
stantly  at  his  desk,  Benjamin  called  him  to  account 
by  the  note,  which  contained  a  direct  challenge,  with 
out  asking  for  a  withdrawal  or  explanation.  When 
the  temper  of  the  time  is  considered,  the  character  of 
the  two  men  is  strongly  illustrated." 

Benjamin's  unfailing  suavity,  his  gentleness,  his 
very  looks  deceived  many  people  into  thinking  him 
deficient  in  courage  ;  but  he  would  resent  an  insult  as 
readily  as  any  blusterer.  Fortunately  for  all  parties, 
Mr.  Davis  had  no  need  to  fear  any  misconstruction  of 
his  motives,  and  made  the  sort  of  amends  that  only 
the  truly  courageous  can  make.  Benjamin  accepted 
the  explanation  in  a  few  simple  words,  stating  that 


IN  AND  OUT  OF  THE  SENATE  179 

he  could  confidently  appeal  to  his  brother  senators  to 
bear  him  out  when  he  said  that  he  had  always  striven 
to  be  courteous  and  patient  of  differences  of  opinion  j 
that  he  had  been  hurt  by  the  asperity  in  the  tone 
and  manner  of  one  whom  he  respected  and  admired  ; 
but  that  he  would  be  very  glad  to  forget  all  be 
tween  them  "  except  the  pleasant  passage  of  this 
morning."  Thus  simply  closed  an  incident  whose 
like  was,  with  less  happy  ending,  too  sadly  frequent 
in  Congressional  annals.  Its  importance  was  mag 
nified  at  the  time,  and  the  subsequent  relations  of 
the  two  men  made  people  attach  an  undue  signifi 
cance  to  it.  Mr.  Davis' s  respect  for  the  Louisian- 
ian  was  no  doubt  increased  by  it,  but  acqaintance 
did  not  of  a  sudden  ripen  into  intimacy,  as  some 
newspapers  afterward  said.  Indeed,  the  two,  while 
friendly,  continued  to  be  often  antagonistic  in  poli 
tics,  though  forces  far  more  potent  were  inevitably 
bringing  them  together. 

Before  we  undertake  to  review  the  critical  events 
of  the  year  preceding  the  Civil  War,  it  may  be  well  to 
conclude  here  with  some  account  of  matters  not  per 
taining  directly  to  politics  with  which  Benjamin  was 
concerned.  And  in  this  connection,  one  of  the  most 
important  tasks  will  be  to  take  note  of  his  views 
on  our  relations  with  Cuba. 

His  first  public  association  with  the  Cuban  ques 
tion  had  been  professional  rather  than  political,  and 
it  is  hard  to  say  how  far  he  was  acting  as  the  law 
yer.  The  irrepressible  Lopez  had  organized  an  ex 
pedition  in  New  Orleans,  in  1850,  ostensibly  to  sail 
for  Chagres,  but  really  intended,  of  course,  for  Cuba. 
There  was  the  usual  fiasco,  not  without  its  trage- 


180  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

dies,  and  then  a  number  of  indictments  were  returned 
against  the  Americans  who  had  taken  more  or  less 
part  in  the  purposed  infraction  of  the  neutrality 
laws,  including  General  Quitman,  the  governor  of 
Mississippi.  It  is  not  surprising  that  the  govern 
ment  thought  it  necessary  to  employ  additional 
counsel  for  the  prosecution  of  these  cases,  in  view  of 
the  fact  that  the  District  Attorney  at  New  Orleans, 
whose  attention  had  been  called  to  Lopez's  prepara 
tions  in  1850,  had  replied  to  Secretary  of  State  Clay 
ton,  May  14,  1850:  "  You  may  rely  on  it,  that  in 
connection  with  the  supposed  expedition  against 
Cuba," — which  had  already  sailed — "no  law  of  the 
United  States  has  been  violated  in  this  district. 
.  .  .  The  leaders  of  this  enterprise  have  had  good 
legal  advisers  !  "  l 

The  first  case,  against  General  Henderson,  came  on 
for  trial  in  January,  1851,  and  Benjamin  was  asso 
ciated  with  the  District  Attorney  for  the  prosecu 
tion.  There  was  a  mistrial,  the  jury  failing  to  agree. 
The  case  was  tried  again,  with  the  same  result,  and 
again,  and  again, — until  the  government,  realizing 
the  impossibility  of  securing  a  conviction,  gave  up 
the  prosecution  and  dismissed  all  of  the  suits.  Public 
sentiment  was  too  strongly  in  favor  of  the  filibusters  ; 
when  the  cases  were  closed,  a  salute  of  thirty-one  guns 
(one  for  each  state,  and  one  for  Cuba)  was  fired  in 
Lafayette  Square.3 

The  facts  in  the  case  seem  very  plain  to  unpreju 
diced  eyes,  and  Benjamin's  speech  to  the  jury  in  the 
first  trial,  while  not  on  a  great  subject,  covered  them  all 

1  Delta,  Jan.  3,  10,  11,  14, 18,  and  23,  1851. 
9  Delta,  Feb.  11,  and  26 ;  March  8. 


IN  AND  OUT  OF  THE  SENATE          181 

aiid  pointed  out  unerringly  the  violations  of  the  neu 
trality  laws.  We  need  not  consider  the  legal  points 
in  this  address,  but  in  vriew  of  his  later  attitude  on 
Cuban  annexation,  we  may  quote  a  few  passages  that 
were  very  unpopular  in  such  a  community  :  < '  What  a 
blaze  of  indignation  fired  the  whole  nation,  a  few  years 
ago,  when  some  British  officers,  provoked  to  madness 
by  the  aggressions  of  our  own  people,  crossed  over  to 
our  soil  and  burned  a  steamer  within  our  territory.  The 
blood  mantled  to  every  American  cheek,  and  every 
arm  was  raised  to  repel  and  avenge  the  insult  offered 
to  our  sovereignty.  And  yet,  in  the  face  of  such  facts, 
showing  our  own  sensibility  to  attacks  of  this  char 
acter,  we  are  to  listen  day  after  day  to  verbal  criti 
cisms  and  metaphysical  niceties  of  language,  to  show 
that  .  .  .  there  has  been  no  violation  of  law." 
He  exposed  the  deceitful  tricks  and  unworthy  means 
used  to  get  up  this  expedition,  and  the  absolute  failure 
of  the  "  oppressed  "  Cubans  to  aid  their  "  liberators  "  : 
"  Not  a  single  movement  has  been  made  in  Cuba  ;  not 
a  ripple  disturbs  the  smooth  current  of  the  life  of  that 
people  ;  not  a  single  proof  is  given  of  their  dissatisfac 
tion  with  their  lot ; — these  discontents  exist  only  in  the 
imaginations  of  our  Cuban  bondholders.  The  rich  are 
busily  engaged  in  rolling  their  sugar  cane,  gathering  in 
their  rich  crops  ;  the  poor  are  eating  tortilles^  smoking 
cigars,  swinging  in  hammocks,  and  sucking  oranges ; 
— they  do  not  appear  to  be  at  all  troubled  by  their 
oppression  or  disturbed  with  their  lot.  Their  inde 
pendence  is  to  be  achieved  for  them  by  our  enterpris 
ing  young  men  who  rejoice  in  the  outlandish  name  of 
'  Filibuster.'" 
But  neither  evidence  nor  rhetoric  could  prevail 


182  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

against  what  the  Delta  called  "the  spirit  of  the  age." 
Indeed,  the  acute  and  uncharitable  reader  may  find 
sufficient  reason  for  the  disagreement  of  the  juries  in 
the  following  bill  of  fare  which,  says  this  paper, '  the 
first  jury  sent  to  the  marshal,  i  i  and  which  was  promptly 
filled  by  that  courteous  officer :  l  Soup  :  oyster  and 
turtle — plenty.  Eoasts  :  ducks  and  beef — with  inde 
pendent  vegetables  and  separate  gravies.  Vegetables  : 
Irish  potatoes,  mashed ;  sweet  potatoes,  roasted ;  onions, 
boiled.  Tenderloin  steak  with  mushrooms;  venison 
steak  with  cranberry  jelly.  Custards,  tarts,  oranges, 
raisins,  mince  pies,  and  bananas.  Liquors :  brandy, 
Madeira,  hock,  and  whiskey.  Dinner  for  twenty-four. 
Liquors  for  forty -eight.'  " 

Benjamin  was  indeed  running  counter  to  the  "spirit 
of  the  age"  in  this  matter;  and  such  a  menu  alone 
might  well  outweigh  his  best  arguments.  Then,  too, 
rumors  were  set  on  foot  that  the  Spanish  government 
had  employed  him  to  prosecute,  or  persecute,  the 
would-be  liberators  of  Cuba.  To  this  insinuation  he 
replied  in  one  of  his  rare  letters  to  the  papers : 2  "I 
observe  it  stated  in  a  letter  from  Mississippi,  published 
in  your  paper  of  this  date  (May  22d),  that  Governor 
Quitman  had  asserted,  in  a  public  speech,  that  I  had 
received  from  the  Court  of  Spain  a  fee  of  $25,000  (!) 
for  assisting  in  the  Cuban  prosecutions.  The  story  is 
so  ridiculous  that  I  should  not  have  deemed  it  worth 
noticing,  if  coming  from  a  less  responsible  source  ;  nor 
can  I  now  think  it  possible  that  a  gentleman  of  Gov 
ernor  Quitman' s  high  position  can  really  have  said 
such  a  foolish  thing.  Your  correspondent  must  have 

'Jan.  24,  1851. 
5  Delta,  May  23. 


IN  AND  OUT  OF  THE  SENATE  183 

misunderstood  him.  Yet,  as  there  is  no  limit  to  the 
credulity  of  some  people,  I  beg  to  say  that  I  have 
never  been  employed,  directly  or  indirectly,  by  any 
other  person  than  Mr.  Hun  ton  [District  Attorney], 
acting  under  an  order  from  Washington,  which  was 
shown  to  me  when  he  employed  me  ;  that  I  was  never 
promised, — have  never  received — nor  do  I  ever  expect 
to  receive,  one  cent  of  compensation  for  my  services 
from  any  other  source  than  from  the  government  of 
the  United  States  ;  and  in  order  that  everybody  taking 
an  interest  in  my  private  aifairs  may  be  fully  informed 
on  the  subject,  I  will  add  that  I  have  not  yet  received 
one  cent  of  compensation,  even  from  our  own  govern 
ment,  and  will  feel  much  indebted  to  any  kind  gentle 
man  that  will  take  the  trouble  to  procure  for  me  the 
allowance  of  a  reasonable  fee  from  the  authorities  at 
Washington. " 

No  doubt  Benjamin  was  sincere  in  condemning  the 
filibusters  and  their  methods.  Both  common  sense 
and  common  honesty  must  have  convinced  him  that 
expeditions  like  those  of  Lopez  could  not  succeed,  and 
could  not  be  anything  but  disgraceful  to  America  if 
they  did  by  any  chance  succeed.  In  several  public 
utterances  he  showed  that  this  was  his  view  ;  and  he 
was  rather  conspicuous  for  his  willingness  to  concede 
that  there  might  be  something  to  be  said  for  Spain, 
when  others  were  shouting  for  summary  extinction  of 
Spanish  despotism,  in  Cuba,  and  incidentally  for  the 
annexation  of  that  valuable  island.  But  the  letter  just 
cited  seems  to  me  to  be  the  production  of  the  politician, 
rather  than  of  the  man.  Scores  of  libels,  more  absurd 
and  more  damaging  than  Quitmau's  nonsense,  called 
forth  no  public  reply  from  Benjamin  ;  why  should  he 


184  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

choose  to  notice  this  one  I  It  was  not  that  he  cared 
for  Quitman  or  his  opinion,  but  that  he  might  in  some 
measure  mitigate  the  unpopularity  that  the  lawyer  had 
brought  on  the  politician  by  prosecuting  the  heroes 
of  the  hour.  It  was  bad  enough,  in  all  conscience,  to 
have  been  so  employed  professionally  by  his  own  gov 
ernment  ;  it  would  have  been  almost  certain  political 
ruin  to  have  it  thought  that  he  was  really  pro-Spanish 
in  his  sympathies.  The  letter,  consequently,  very 
subtly  leaves  the  impression,  without  actually  saying 
so,  that  Benjamin  the  lawyer  of  course  did  his  best  for 
his  clients  in  the  case,  but  that  Benjamin  the  politi 
cian  might  not,  after  all,  really  hold  opinions  such  as 
had  been  expressed  to  the  jury,  and  had  certainly  no 
relations  with  the  enemies  of  Israel  and  the  possessors 
of  Cuba. 

In  all  seriousness,  however,  it  would  have  been 
politically  impossible  for  Benjamin  to  have  been  any 
thing  except  an  annexationist,  an  expansionist ;  but 
filibustering  most  frequently  made  at  least  a  pretense 
of  aiming  at  the  establishment  of  an  independent  gov 
ernment  in  Cuba,  and  a  free  Cuba  would  most  cer 
tainly  be  no  addition  to  the  strength  of  the  South.  It 
might,  indeed,  as  he  and  others  feared,1  mean  little 
less  than  another  San  Domingo  right  across  from 
Florida.  His  action  in  the  Senate,  therefore,  shows 
him  to  have  desired  Cuba,  though  not  with  that 
passion  which  would  hurry  him  into  union  by  Gretna 
Green  methods.  There  was  to  come  a  day  when  he 
must  have  wished  most  devoutly  that  he  could  con 
vince  Spain  that  he  had  resolutely  championed  her 

1  See  Rhodes,  Vol.  II  p.  25,  and  Benjamin's  speech  of  Feb.  11. 
1859,  in  the  Senate. 


IN  AND  OUT  OP  THE  SENATE          185 

cause,  not  only  against  filibusters,  which  he  had  done 
but  against  the  greed  of  his  own  people,  which  he  had 
not  done. 

For  some  time  we  have  heard  nothing  of  the 
Tehuantepec  scheme,  which  we  left  in  a  very  tangled 
and  unsatisfactory  state,  and  which  must  now  claim, 
attention  for  a  brief  period  of  high  promise  and  ap 
parent  prosperity.  The  Sloo  contract 1  with  the 
Mexican  government  had  proved  as  unfortunate  as  its 
predecessors.  Hargous,  after  the  confirmation  of  the 
new  grant,  had  not  by  any  means  given  up  his  fight, 
though  now  he  sought  to  secure  his  ends  by  indirect 
means.  When  Sloo,  unable  to  construct  his  road  or 
even  to  make  the  necessary  payments  to  the  Mexican 
government,  borrowed  the  funds  from  F.  P.  Falconnet, 
an  English  banker  residing  in  Mexico,  Hargous  ob 
tained  control  of  the  grant  by  buying  up  this  debt. 
Since  the  debt  to  Falconnet,  carrying  a  lien  on  the 
property,  antedated  the  Tehuantepec  Company  formed 
in  New  Orleans  with  Emile  La  Sere  as  president, 
it  was  rather  hard  to  see  that  this  corporation  was 
anything  but i  i  the  shadow  of  an  insubstantial  corpse, '  > 
as  one  journalist  remarked.  In  the  early  summer 
of  1857,  La  Sere  went  to  Washington,  conferred 
with  Hargous  and  his  attorney,  Benjamin,  and 
agreed  to  an  arrangement  that  would  once  more  pro 
tect  the  various  interests  involved.  Benjamin  could 
probably  have  entirely  disregarded  the  claims  of 

1  For  the  statements  on  this  part  of  the  Tehuantepeo  episode,  see 
Senate  Executive  Documents  221,  1st  Session  36th  Congress  ;  Treaties 
and  Conventions  of  the  United  States,  (1889),  p.  697  and  p.  1356  ; 
Picayune,  July  29  and  Sept.  14,  1856  ;  Aug.  2,  Sept.  29,  Got.  13, 
1857  ;  Delta,  Aug.  6,  Sept.  29  and  30,  Oct.  1  and  12,  1857  ;  True 
Delta,  Sept.  29,  Nov.  1  and  13,  1857. 


186  JTJDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

La  Sere's  company ;  it  would  have  been  neither  honest 
nor  good  policy,  however,  to  have  done  so,  for  many 
of  his  fellow  citizens  had  invested  their  money  in  this 
venture,  and  he  knew  that  the  ultimate  success  of  the 
scheme  under  any  management  would  depend  upon  its 
good  name  and  upon  the  support  of  these  very  people. 

Once  more  we  find  the  advertisement  of  a  Louisiana 
Tehuantepec  Company,  its  charter  dated  July  30, 
1857.  This  charter,  similar  otherwise  to  that  of  pre 
vious  companies,  carries  an  obligation  to  take  up 
financial  responsibilities  that  fairly  stagger  one. 
Omitting  details,  suffice  it  to  say  that  it  assumes,  first, 
the  positive  debt  of  $600,000,  plus  interest,  to  Falcon- 
net  5  second,  that  stockholders  and  trustees  of  both  old 
companies  are  to  be  paid  in  stock  of  the  new  company, 
dollar  for  dollar  ;  and  third,  that  all  just  liabilities  of 
the  La  Sere  company  are  likewise  to  be  paid.  But 
even  more  discouraging  than  this  beginning  with 
liabilities  amounting  to  between  three  and  four  millions, 
scarcely  a  pretense  at  effective  work  had  been  made  on 
the  railroad,  and  even  the  carriage-road  was  largely 
a  fiction  of  the  Mexican  imagination,  while  another 
chapter  of  uncertain  and  perhaps  expensive  negotiations 
with  Mexico  must  be  gone  through  with  to  ratify  the 
forfeited  Sloo  grant  once  more. 

In  the  charter  of  the  new  company,  Benjamin  and 
La  Sere  were  specially  designated  as  the  commis 
sioners  to  arrange  for  this  ratification.  On  August 
2d,  these  two,  representing  the  now  consolidated 
interests,  sailed  for  Mexico  on  the  steamship  Texas. 
Another  passenger  was  Pierre  Soule,1  representing  a 
rebellious  faction  of  the  extinct  Sloo  company.  Before 
1  Cf.  Diary  of  a  Public  Man,  North  American  Review,  1879,  p.  264. 


IN  AND  OUT  OP  THE  SENATE  187 

starting  on  his  journey  Benjamin  had  secured  the  good 
will  of  President  Buchanan.  This  was  chiefly  due  to 
the  personal  friendship  existing  between  Mr.  Slidell 
and  the  Chief  Executive.  The  former  had  become 
interested  in  Tehuantepec,  and  through  him  Benjamin 
had  an  opportunity  to  present  the  plans,  prospects, 
and  hopes  of  an  undertaking,  which,  if  successful, 
would  be  of  national  consequence.  What  the  particu 
lars  of  the  interview  were  we  shall  never  know  ;  but 
the  President  so  far  favored  Mr.  Benj amin's  project  as 
to  send  special  instructions  to  Mr.  Forsyth,  Minister  to 
Mexico,  informing  him  that  Benjamin  and  La  Sere 
came  on  a  mission  approved  by  the  administration  ; 
that  they  possessed  the  confidence  of  Mr.  Buchanan  ; 
and  that  they  were  to  be  formally  presented  to  the 
Mexican  President.  At  the  same  time,  it  was  made 
clear  to  Mr.  Forsyth  that  the  mission  was  not  official, 
but  on  business  concerning  private  citizens,  however 
important  might  be  the  ultimate  results.  He  was  also 
instructed  to  assist  these  gentlemen  in  every  way  in  his 
power,  and  to  endeavor  to  secure  from  the  Mexican 
government  proper  safeguards  not  only  for  this  par 
ticular  work  but  for  the  interests  of  the  United  States 
in  any  transit  across  Tehuantepec. 

This  was  the  substance  of  a  special  note  to  Forsyth, 
signed  and  sent  out  by  Cass  as  Secretary  of  State,  but, 
if  gossip  is  to  be  relied  on,  really  written  by  Buchanan 
himself.  Nay,  gossip  goes  farther,  and  reports  that  the 
President  said  he  would  not  entrust  the  writing  of  so  im 
portant  a  dispatch  to  "  a  superannuated  old  fogy  "  like 
his  Secretary  of  State.  Gossip  likewise  reports  un 
pleasant  things  from  the  City  of  Mexico.  The  two 
commissioners  were  cordially  received  and  handsomely 


188  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

entertained  by  President  Comonfort  and  other  Mexican 
dignitaries.  And  after  weeks  of  wining  and  dining, 
they  returned  in  October  to  New  Orleans,  triumphant, 
the  Tehuantepec  grant  confirmed  by  an  imposing 
array  of  those  extraordinary  "decrees/'  "pronuncia- 
mentoes,"  or  what-nots,  produced  in  such  bewildering 
profusion  on  Spanish- American  soil.  So  far  all  was 
well.  But  news  soon  reached  New  Orleans  that  Soule 
and  Forsyth,  while  not  able  to  defeat  Benjamin,  had 
yet  [made  his  task  much  more  difficult ;  and  that,  in 
consequence,  Benjamin  had  requested  Slidell  to  lodge 
a  complaint  against  Forsyth  at  the  Department  of 
State.  At  the  same  time  Mexican  newspapers  began 
to  arrive.  They  said  nothing  of  actual  differences  be 
tween  the  Minister  and  Mr.  Benjamin,  but  hinted  that 
the  latter  had  sedulously  labored  to  produce  the  im 
pression  in  Mexico  that  he,  and  not  Mr.  Forsyth,  was 
really  the  important  personage,  the  confidential  repre 
sentative  of  the  President,  in  regard  to  the  Tehuantepec 
question.  And  one  journal,  the  Trait  d*  Union  (Sep 
tember  14th),  in  summing  up  the  heavy  load  of  debts 
with  which  the  new  company  would  have  to  start,  con 
cluded  :  "It  will,  moreover,  have  to  provide  for  the 
expenses  (frais  et  pots  de  viri)  incurred  here  to  obtain 
its  privilege,  which  expenses  amount  to  at  least  half  a 
million  of  dollars." 

In  regard  to  this  uncomfortable  insinuation  about  the 
frais  et  pots  de  vin,  the  same  newspaper  published,  a 
few  days  later,  a  formal  and  indignant  denial  from 
the  commissioners  of  the  Tehuantepec  Company.  In 
regard  to  the  charge  that  Mr.  Benjamin  had  sought  to 
supplant  Minister  Forsyth  when  he  found  him  not  al 
together  in  sympathy,  we  have  no  such  satisfactory 


IN  AND  OUT  OF  THE  SENATE          189 

evidence  in  rebuttal.  The  complaints  against  Forsyth 
were  not  urged  by  Mr.  Benjamin  when  he  returned  to 
Washington.  But  it  is  not  at  all  improbable  that, 
with  his  whole  heart  set  on  this  Tehuantepec  plan, 
he  allowed  himself  to  speak  indiscreetly  of  one  who 
seemed  to  him  to  be  opposing  where  he  was  in  honor 
bound  to  aid.  In  his  zeal  for  the  Tehuantepec  Com 
pany  he  might  well  have  forgotten,  too,  that  Mr. 
Forsyth' s  first  duty  was  to  look  after  government 
interests  ;  that  the  new  grant  from  Mexico  was  not  so 
favorable  to  the  United  States  as  one  which  had  been 
covered  by  the  eighth  article  of  the  Gadsden  Treaty, 
and  that  the  Minister's  opposition  had  been  highly 
commendable.  It  was  an  unfortunate  little  episode, 
closing  with  spiteful  comments  on  Benjamin.  Gads- 
den  himself  wrote  a  letter  to  the  papers  ;  its  style  is  so 
bad  as  to  be  almost  unintelligible  (possibly  the  printer 
is  partly  to  blame);  but  as  it  contains  one  of  the 
earliest  slurs  upon  Benjamin  for  his  religious  faith,  I 
set  down  one  sentence  as  it  stands  :  u  The  mesmeric 
influences  of  Tehuantepec,  and  under  the  tribe  of 
Benjamin,  seeking  its  inheritance  in  the  land  of  Mexi 
can  promise,  seems  to  have  been  again  reanimated." 
A  brief  season  of  apparent  prosperity  came  to  the 
Tehuantepec  Company.  Mr.  Benjamin  raised  funds 
and  actually  got  built  a  practicable  road  for  vehicles 
across  the  Isthmus.  He  coaxed  a  reluctant  Postmaster- 
General  into  granting  a  contract  to  carry  the  Cali 
fornia  mails  via  Tehuantepec,  for  one  year,  commenc 
ing  November  1,  1858.  The  company  provided  the 
vsteamship  Quaker  City,  and  she  started  on  her  maiden 
trip  from  New  Orleans  to  Minatitlan,  October  27, 
1858.  There  was  great  jollification  and  congrat- 


190  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

ulation.  And  there  were  more  trips  of  the  Quaker 
City,  and  the  mail  came  through  from  California 
in  twelve  days  less  than  by  any  other  route.  Then 
suddenly  followed  the  evil  days — Hargous  Brothers 
floundering  in  financial  bogs ;  the  company  well-nigh 
ruined ;  Mr.  Benjamin,  armed  with  personal  letters  to 
the  Barings  and  others  from  Slidell  and  from  the 
Chief  Executive  himself,  wasting  his  summer  vacation 
(1859)  in  the  effort  to  get  financial  aid  in  Europe. 
The  last  hope,  a  hope  that  lingered  on  till  the  Civil 
War,  lay  in  negotiations  between  the  two  governments 
concerned.  Minister  McClane,  Forsyth's  successor, 
was  instructed  to  open  the  question.  He  did  so,  and 
had  an  assuring  interview  with  Juarez  ;  but  the  end 
of  that  adventurer  could  not  then  be  definitely  forecast, 
and  the  United  States  could  not  recognize  him  as 
de  facto  ruler  while  he  was  a  mere  fugitive.  And  so 
large  bundles  of  beautifully  engraved  stock  certificates 
of  the  Tehuantepec  Company,  bearing  a  heavy  inter 
est  of  dust,  are  probably  still  preserved  in  out  of  the 
way  places,  and  the  fruitless  Company  concerns  Mr. 
Benjamin7 s  biographer  no  longer.1 

1  Picayune,  Apr.  21,  June  16,  Aug.  25,  Sept.  5  and  18,  Oct.  27, 
Nov.  11,  19,  20,  23,  Dec.  8  ;  Delta,  June  16,  Oct.  29,  1857  :  True 
Delta,  Oct.  28,  1857,  May  27,  July  24,  29,  Aug.  3,  1859;  March 
10,  1860. 


CHAPTEE  VIII 

THE  PRESIDENTIAL  CAMPAIGN  OF  1860 

WHATEVER  kindly  apologists  may  say  in  defense  of 
President  Buchanan — and  it  would  be  puerile  as  well 
as  cowardly  to  suggest  so  much  as  a  doubt  of  his  up 
rightness,  kindliness,  and  good  intentions — his  admin 
istration  had  been,  to  say  the  least,  inglorious.  In 
his  foreign  policy  neither  North  nor  South  could  take 
pride  ;  the  irritation  of  Spain  and  of  Mexico  had 
been  rather  aggravated  than  allayed,  nor  was  there 
any  positive  if  unrighteous  gain,  such  as  Polk  could 
point  to,  to  please  our  own  people.  In  his  domestic 
policy  the  Kansas  incident  is  fairly  typical :  the  maxi 
mum  of  irritation  to  both  North  and  South,  and  then 
no  result  to  please  either.  It  was  manifest  that  some 
new  leader  must  head  the  Democratic  party,  even  if 
the  "  old  public  functionary  "  should  wish  to  continue 
his  service.  Earlier  than  usual,  therefore,  the  poli 
ticians  seriously  began  the  search  for  another  Presi 
dential  candidate. 

No  one  could  doubt  that  the  strongest  man  in 
the  party  was  Stephen  A.  Douglas.  But,  like  Clay, 
Webster,  Seward,  and  Blaine,  he  was  to  lose  the 
coveted  prize  just  as  it  seemed  within  his  grasp. 
Even  before  the  enunciation  of  his  "Freeport  Doc 
trine, '?  the  Southern  leaders  had  begun  to  doubt  him  • 
in  those  debates  with  Lincoln,  and  in  his  action  on  the 
Kansas  question,  they  found  that  which  made  them, 
almost  to  a  man,  his  irreconcilable  enemies.  Accord- 


192  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

ingly  they  prepared  to  defeat  him  in  the  Charleston 
convention,  or  to  bind  him  by  such  a  platform  as 
would  secure  the  aims  of  their  section.  If  he  would 
have  consented  to  such  a  platform,  they  would  have 
trusted  him.  But,  eager  politician  though  he  was, 
Douglas  was  too  honest  and  sincere  to  palter  with  his 
principles.  The  result  is  known  :  the  split  in  the 
Democratic  party,  the  secession  of  the  Southern  dele 
gates,  foreshadowing  secession  of  a  more  formidable 
sort,  and  the  nomination  of  Breckinridge  and  Douglas 
by  the  rival  factions.  It  was  Lincoln's  "house  di 
vided  against  itself77  in  fateful  fashion. 

Though  Benjamin  had  not  yet  begun  open  attacks 
upon  Douglas,  he  was  entirely  in  accord  with  the  other 
Southern  leaders  in  the  policy  pursued  at  Charleston, 
and  approved  of  the  withdrawal  of  the  Louisiana  dele 
gation  from  the  convention.  In  a  speech  in  the 
Senate,  May  8,  I860,1  he  attempts  to  justify  this 
action,  in  words  whose  sincerity  we  see  no  reason  to 
question,  and  which  recall  former  utterances  :  "  Dis 
tinctly  opposite  interpretations,  or  distinctly  opposite 
principles,  if  you  choose,  in  relation  to  Southern  rights 
under  the  Constitution,  were  avowed  at  Charleston,  by 
men  professing  all  to  be  Democrats.  ...  It  is 
unworthy  of  them,  and  unworthy  of  us  all,  that  we 
should  go  before  the  people  of  this  country  and  ask 
their  votes  in  favor  of  one  party  or  another,  with  the 
avowed  purpose  of  presenting  opposite  sets  of  prin 
ciples  in  the  two  sections  of  the  Confederacy,  as  being 
the  principles  of  a  common  party,  and  forming  a  com 
mon  party  creed.  I  say  that  I  will  never  be  a  party 
to  any  such  contest  as  that.  If  I  go  into  an  electoral 

1  Globe,  1859-1860,  Part  III,  p.  1967. 


PRESIDENTIAL  CAMPAIGN  OF  1860      193 

contest,  I  want  to  know  the  principles  of  the  party 
with  which  I  act,  and  I  want,  before  the  people  of  my 
state,  before  the  people  of  the  country,  to  declare 
those  principles,  to  stand  by  them,  to  find  them  written 
in  letters  of  light,  so  that  no  man  can  dare  misconstrue 
them,  and  by  them  to  stand,  and  with  them,  if  need 
be,  fall."  In  the  same  strain  he  continues,  that  he 
will  support  any  available  man  who  can  honestly 
stand  on  a  platform  satisfactory  to  his  people  :  '  *  That 
far,  sir,  I  am  willing  to  go  ;  but  I  have  no  stomach  for 
a  fight  in  which  I  am  to  have  the  choice  between  the 
man  who  denies  me  all  my  rights,  openly  and  fairly, 
and  a  man  who  admits  my  rights  but  intends  to  filch 
them."  He  saw  little  hope  of  finding  such  a  platform 
and  such  a  man  as  the  united  Democracy  could 
support. 

Nevertheless,  Benjamin  was  one  of  the  nineteen 
Southern  representatives  who  signed  (May  17th)  that 
hopeless  "  Address  to  the  National  Democracy,"  l 
urging  the  seceding  delegates  to  go  to  Baltimore  with 
the  Douglas  faction,  to  await  and  work  for  some  con 
cession  that  will  lead  to  reunion,  and  only  after  that 
fails  to  join  the  rest  of  the  Southern  delegates  at 
Richmond.  The  signers  of  this  document,  including 
Jefferson  Davis,  Reagan,  Laniar,  the  senators  from 
Virginia,  Arkansas,  Georgia,  and  Louisiana,  and 
others,  were  unquestionably  sincere  in  regretting  the 
division  of  the  party,  and  in  wishing  to  end  it ;  but  the 
Southerners,  in  this  hour  of  fate,  seemed  to  forget  the 
true  nature  of  compromise,  expecting  all  of  the  conces 
sions  to  come  from  the  other  side.  And  the  tone  they 
adopted  toward  the  Northern  wing  of  the  Democracy, 

1  Delta,  May  22. 


194  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

and  toward  Douglas  in  particular,  was  not  such  as  to 
calm  angry  passions. 

The  allusion  to  Douglas  as  the  l '  man  who  admits 
my  rights  but  intends  to  filch  them  ' 7  is  patent  enough  ; 
it  is  personally  applied  in  a  fierce  and  unjust  arraign 
ment  of  his  policy  on  May  22d. '  We  can  speak  of  this 
attack  as  unjust  only  because  its  bitterness  is  greater 
than  the  occasion  called  for,  and  because  after  events 
have  reestablished  Douglas's  good  name  in  the  world  ; 
for  the  charges  made  are  essentially  true,  and  the  inter 
pretation  then  put  upon  them  was  not  unreasonable  in 
the  light  of  things  as  they  seemed.  The  logic  of  events 
had  impelled  Douglas  to  retreat  from  extreme  pro- 
Southern  views  whose  full  significance  to  the  section  he 
had  perhaps  never  realized  before  ;  only  when  he  was 
shown  whither  his  own  policies  led  did  he  halt,  hesi 
tate,  seek  a  safe  detour,  and  finally  make  an  honest 
confession  that  he  had  chosen  a  new  route  that  did  not 
lead  whither  the  South  had  insisted  it  must  lead. 
There  is,  then,  no  reading,  without  a  pained  sense  of 
their  mingled  justice  and  injustice,  Benjamin's  accus 
ations  of  bad  faith,  of  endless  intrigue,  of  paltering 
with  the  people  of  both  sections  in  words  that  are  inter 
preted  in  one  way  at  the  North  and  quite  another  at 
the  South. 

Benjamin  had  this  to  say  of  Douglas's  antagonist  in 
those  debates  of  1858  :  "In  that  contest  the  two  candi 
dates  for  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  in  the  state 
of  Illinois,  went  before  their  people.  They  agreed  to 
discuss  the  issues  ;  they  put  questions  to  each  other  for 
answer ;  and  I  must  say  here,  for  I  must  be  just  to  all, 
that  I  have  been  surprised  in  the  examination  that  I 

1  Qlole,  1859-1860,  Part  III,  p.  2233,  et  seq. 


PRESIDENTIAL  CAMPAIGN  OF  1860      195 

made  again  within  the  last  few  days  of  this  discussion 
between  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Mr.  Douglas,  to  find  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  is  a  far  more  conservative  man,  unless  he  has 
since  changed  his  opinions,  than  I  had  supposed  him  to 
be.  There  was  no  dodging  on  his  part.  Mr.  Douglas 
started  with  his  questions.  Here  they  are,  with  Mr. 
Lincoln's  answers.''  He  then  quotes  the  familiar 
answers  to  Douglas's  seven  questions,  such  as,  that 
Lincoln  is  not  in  favor  of  the  unconditional  repeal 
of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law ;  that  he  is  not  pledged 
against  the  admission  of  more  slave  states,  or  of  any 
state  with  such  constitution  as  the  people  of  the  state 
may  prefer ;  that  he  is  committed  to  a  belief  in  the 
right  and  duty  of  Congress  to  prohibit  slavery  in  the 
territories,  etc.1  "It  is  impossible  .  .  .  not  to 
admire  the  perfect  candor  and  frankness  with  which 
these  answers  were  given  :  no  equivocation — no  eva 
sion."  And  it  is  easy  to  present  in  ugly  contrast  the 
disingenuous  and  evasive  answers  of  Douglas  to  Lin 
coln's  questions,  especially  to  the  famous  one  :  "  Can 
the  people  of  a  territory,  in  any  lawful  way,  against 
the  wishes  of  any  citizen  of  the  United  States,  exclude 
slavery  from  their  limits  prior  to  the  formation  of  a 
state  constitution?"  Douglas  certainly  made  a  poor 
figure  in  this  contrast,  and  in  condemning  the  "Little 
Giant,"  the  Southerner  expressed  the  resentful  feel 
ings  of  his  section. 

In  spite  of  his  partisan  bias,  however,  Benjamin  did 
not  forget  justice  and  kindness.  A  little  episode  in 
the  Senate  in  1860  may  serve  to  show  something  of  his 
regard  for  principle  as  well  as  for  the  dictates  of 
humanity.  As  chairman  of  the  Judiciary  Com- 
1  Globe,  1859-1860,  Part  III,  p.  2237. 


196  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

niittee,  Benjamin  reported1  to  the  Senate  a  bill  author 
izing  the  President  to  make  contracts,  for  terms  not 
exceeding  five  years,  with  such  organizations  as  the 
African  Colonization  Society,  to  return  to  Africa 
negroes  taken  from  captured  slavers.  These  forlorn 
wretches  were  to  be  fed,  clothed,  and  provided  for  till 
they  could  look  out  for  themselves,  for  a  period  of  six 
months,  at  a  cost  of  not  more  than  $100  each.  An 
amendment  was  made,  extending  the  period  of  care 
over  the  captives  to  one  year,  at  the  same  cost ;  and 
the  bill  proposed  an  appropriation  of  $200, 000.  There 
were  at  the  time  about  twelve  hundred  such  negroes, 
detained  in  camp,  no  doubt  under  bad  conditions,  at 
Key  West. 

Mr.  Davis  opposed  the  bill,  as  a  waste  of  public 
money,  and  maintained  that  we  should  be  carrying 
out  our  treaty  obligations  if  we  merely  took  the 
negroes  back  to  the  point  whence  they  were  shipped 
and  turned  them,  loose.  Brown,  of  Mississippi,  de 
clared  he  was  unwilling  to  support  them  l  i  out  of  the 
national  treasury  one  hour  after  "  they  got  to  the  coast 
of  Africa.  Mallory,  of  Florida,  championed  a  scheme 
that  was  attracting  some  attention  in  the  press ;  viz., 
to  "apprentice"  the  captives  to  planters  for  five 
years.  Mason,  of  Virginia,  opposed  the  bill  on  the 
ground  that  he  thought  the  power  of  stopping  the 
slave-trade  should  belong  to  the  states,  as  did  Toombs, 
of  Georgia,  on  similar  grounds. 

Benjamin,  against  all  of  these  prominent  men  of  his 
own  party,  took  a  broader  and  more  humane  view  of 
our  obligations  under  the  treaty  with  Great  Britain : 
"The  government  of  the  United  States  is  bound  by 

1  Globe,  Part  III,  pp.  2304,  2306,  et  seq. 


PKESIDENTIAL  CAMPAIGN  OF  1860      197 

treaty  stipulations  to  aid  in  the  suppression  of  the 
slave-trade.  If  that  treaty  binds  us,  it  is  our  duty  to 
carry  it  out  in  good  faith.  If  it  does  not,  then  we 
ought  to  refuse  the  performance  of  that  duty  openly 
and  fairly,  by  declaring  that  we  are  not  bound  by  the 
treaty,  and  do  not  mean  to  execute  it.  No  one  has  yet 
taken  the  latter  position.  The  treaty  binds  us  in  good 
faith  to  aid  in  the  suppression  of  the  slave-trade. 
That  being  the  obligation  of  the  government,  the  prac 
tical  question  alone  was  presented  to  the  committee. 
.  .  .  The  captive  Africans  are  on  our  shore ;  what 
shall  be  done  with  them  ?  That  was  the  simple  prac 
tical  question  to  which  we  looked.  I  desired,  if  pos 
sible,  to  avoid  the  constant  recurrence  of  agitating 
discussions  in  the  Senate.  Finding  the  negroes  there, 
I  could  conceive  of  no  mode  of  disposing  of  them  more 
expedient,  viewing  all  the  circumstances  of  the  case, 
than  that  suggested  by  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  which  had  been  adopted  by  President  Monroe, 
and  afterward  by  himself.  Until  the  proposition  that 
has  just  been  read  for  information,  just  presented  by 
the  senator  from  Florida, — which  I  shall  not  discuss, 
which  I  do  not  approve — nobody  had  hitherto  sug 
gested  that  anything  else  could  be  done  with  these 
slaves  than  to  take  them  back  to  Africa.  .  .  .  We 
are  not  bound  to  go  in  search  of  the  domicile  of  each 
one  of  the  liberated  captives,  and  take  him  just  back 
to  where  he  was  originally  taken  from ;  but  we  take 
him.  back  and  put  him  as  far  on  his  way  home  as  we 
can,  and  at  the  same  time  pay  just  regard  to  the  dic 
tates  of  humanity.  .  .  .  I  do  not  myself  construe 
the  obligations  of  our  government  as  the  senator  from 
Mississippi  does.  I  think  it  was  understood  between 


198  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

Great  Britain  and  this  country,  when  that  treaty  was 
made,  that  we  would  endeavor  to  stop  the  slave-trade 
on  the  coast  of  Africa  by  rendering  it  impossible  to 
prosecute  it ;  and  we  expected  to  do  that  by  capturing 
vessels  engaged  in  it.  I  do  not  think  myself — other 
gentlemen  may  take  a  different  view  of  the  obligation 
— that  it  would  be  consistent  with  fair  dealing  between 
this  government  and  Great  Britain  to  take  these  slaves 
off  the  ships  and  take  them  back  to  the  barracoons 
to  be  resold.  That  is  my  view  of  our  national  obliga 
tion.  If  I  am  right  in  that  view  of  it — and  I  am  firmly 
convinced  I  am  right,  I  do  not  say  I  may  not  be  mis 
taken — that  it  is  our  duty  under  that  treaty  to  arrest, 
as  far  as  we  can,  the  prosecution  of  the  slave-trade, 
then  something  else  must  be  done  with  these  slaves 
besides  putting  them  back  in  the  hands  of  the  slave- 
traders  and  slave-dealers  on  the  coast." 

On  the  final  vote  there  were  but  fourteen  nays,  in 
cluding  the  senators  before  named  and  some  others, 
such  as  Slidell,  Wigfall,  and  Yulee ;  while  among  the 
forty-one  yeas  were  some  notable  Southerners,  such  as 
Chesnut,  Clingmau,  Crittenden,  Hunter,  and  Pearce. 
It  would  be  as  idle  to  commend  their  vote — praise  is 
uncalled  for  in  a  case  where  duty  and  humanity  both 
pointed  the  path — as  to  fancy  that  the  vote  of  the 
opposition  was  due  to  lack  of  plain  perceptions  of 
duty  and  humanity  ;  those  on  the  negative  side  were 
the  nucleus  of  the  determined  obstructionists  of  any 
measure  likely  to  be  pleasing  to  the  North. 

Nothing  else  of  much  note  came  up  in  the  Senate  in 
the  few  remaining  weeks  of  the  session.  In  fact,  even 
practiced  observers  at  the  time  failed  to  see  any  mo 
mentous  stir  or  active  interest  in  politics  during  the 


PKESIDENTIAL  CAMPAIGN  OF  1860      199 

summer  of  this  year.  Knowing  how  portentous  were 
the  results,  that  the  black  cloud  upon  the  Southern 
horizon  was  indeed  charged  with  lightning,  we  per 
haps  exaggerate  the  enthusiasm  and  excitement  of 
the  campaign  of  1860.  The  correspondent  of  the  Lon 
don  Times  was  obviously  disgusted  at  the  lack  of 
interest,  for  he  wrote  in  August, 1  in  the  tone  of  one  ag 
grieved  because  the  play  is  not  so  thrilling  as  the 
posters:  "The  most  striking  feature  of  the  present 
presidential  contest  is  the  comparative  apathy  of  the 
American  public.  They  cannot  be  raised  to  the  requi 
site  degree  of  enthusiasm  either  for  Breckenridge  and 
Lane,  or  Bell  and  Everett,  or  Lincoln  and  Douglas,  or 
any  other  man  or  pair  of  men.  The  old  secession  cry 
of  South  Carolina,  raised  by  Mr.  Keitt,  a  legislator  of 
the  Brooks  school,  falls  as  dead  as  the  '  screamers ?  of 
the  New  York  Herald. ' '  Yet  the  country  was  gathering 
heat  as  the  time  of  election  drew  on,  and  sundry  rum 
blings  and  mutteriugs,  more  among  the  camp-followers 
than  from  the  leaders,  gave  warning  that  the  South 
was  preparing  herself  for  separate  existence  in  case 
the  vote  favored  Lincoln.  Persons  of  apparent  ra 
tionality  on  other  topics  were  writing  to  the  papers 
with  various  hopeful  plans  to  foil  the  Black  Eepub- 
licans.  Most  of  them  in  Mr.  Benj  amin's  own  state 
seem  to  oppose  absolute  secession,  but  not  a  few  coun 
sel  rigid  non-intercourse  between  North  and  South,— 
social,  political,  industrial,  intellectual.  What  was 
to  become  of  the  Union  under  these  circumstances  is, 
unfortunately,  not  stated.  And  commercial  gentlemen 
of  all  sorts  conjure  Southerners  to  be  patriotic  in  their 
purchases  ;  as,  "in  view  of  the  impending  crisis  that 

1  Quoted  in  True  Delta,  Aug.  28. 


200  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

Abe  Lincoln  maybe  elected, "  let  all  Louisianians  buy 
Southern  sewing  machines  instead  of  the  inferior  Black 
Republican  article.1  Occasionally  some  extreme  fire- 
eater  breathes  destruction  in  a  fashion  that  must  have 
taxed  the  patience  of  the  most  submissive  typesetter. 
Thus  some  injudicious  parties  having  expressed  a  wish 
to  know  "his  views,'7  a  well-known  planter  of  Terre- 
bonne  Parish  aimed  a  three-column  letter  at  them, 
whose  style  may  be  imagined  from  the  following 
verbatim  extract : 8  "  We  must  not,  cannot,  and  will 
not  submit  to  wrong  and  oppression,  so  we  must  war 
against  and  fight  our  enemies,  and  be  forced  against  our 
will  to  fight  our  friends  and  relations.  In  New  York 
at  the  last  election,  it  shows  the  Southern  states  had 
350,000  votes,  which  are  our  friends.  .  .  .  From 
these  calculations  and  knowledge, — on  very  favorable 
terms  we  commence  the  war  and  battle,  and,  with  a 
small  band  of  our  patriotic  and  brave  fighting  men,  we 
can  very  easily  whip,  scare  and  put  to  flight  the  negro 
stealers  and  murderers  with  our  patriotic  and  fighting 
army  assisted  by  350,000  in  their  own  state,  New 
York." 

With  such  ebullitions,  of  course,  Benjamin  would 
have  been  as  much  irritated  as  we  are  ;  but  there  was 
little  opportunity  during  this  campaign  for  discover 
ing  his  opinions,  further  than  what  was  amply  ex 
pressed  in  the  Senate  speeches  of  the  spring  ;  for  he 
was  absent  from  the  state  on  his  last  great  legal  case 
in  this  country.  Before  he  started  for  California 
to  continue  this  suit,  the  firm  of  Benjamin,  Bradford 
and  Finney  had  been  succeeded  by  that  of  Benjamin, 

1  True  Delta,  Oct.  12  ;  cf.  Nov.  28. 
8  True  Delta,  Dec.  16. 


PKESIDENTIAL  CAMPAIGN  OF  1860      201 

Bonford  and  Finney.1  Mr.  Bradford,  in  poor  health, 
retired  from  the  partnership  temporarily  (so  it  was 
then  intended),  to  travel  in  Europe.  The  new  firm 
went  on  as  if  there  had  been  no  break,  for  Mr.  P.  E. 
Bouford  was  no  novice  at  the  New  Orleans  bar.  But 
not  a  full  year  elapsed  before  it  was  dissolved  and 
the  three  partners  were  enlisted  in  the  service  of  the 
Confederacy. 

The  case  of  the  United  States  vs.  Castillero  involved 
the  title  to  the  famous  quicksilver  mine,  New  Alma- 
den,  discovered  in  1845  by  Andres  Castillero,  to  whom 
the  Mexican  governor,  Pio  Pico,  had  given  possession, 
together  with  three  thousand  varas  of  land  in  every 
direction  from  its  mouth.  Not  long  after  this,  Cali 
fornia  was  ceded  to  the  United  States  (February  2, 
1848).  In  the  present  suit  Calhoun  Benham  and  Ed 
mund  Eandolph,  for  the  government,  denied  the  genu 
ineness  of  Castillero' s  title  papers,  and  the  right  of  the 
Mexican  governor  to  make  him  a  grant  of  land  in 
California.  The  counsel  for  the  claimants  were  A.  C. 
Peachy,  Eeverdy  Johnson,  and  J.  P.  Benjamin ;  the 
last  named,  owing  to  his  special  familiarity  with 
such  land  claims  and  with  the  Spanish  laws,  prepared 
the  brief  and  made  the  leading  argument.  The  trial 
began  on  October  8,  1860,  before  the  Circuit  Court  for 
California,  and  Benjamin's  argument  ran  through  four 
days,  October  24th,  25th,  26th,  and  November  5th. 
The  legal  points  of  the  case,  however,  being  of  interest 
to  few,  we  shall  omit ;  for  though  the  sums  involved 
were  so  great  that  Benjamin  received  a  fee  of  twenty- 
five  thousand  dollars  for  his  services,  it  was  after  all 
but  a  private  claim.  The  decision  of  the  Circuit 

1  Picayune,  July  11. 


202  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

Court,  January  18,  1861,  was  adverse  to  the  claimants, 
who  appealed  to  the  Supreme  Court,  before  which  the 
brilliant  Louisiana  advocate  could  no  longer  personally 
appear.  But  the  "  counsel  on  appeal  for  the  claimants, 
including  Eeverdy  Johnson,  Charles  O' Conor,  and 
J.  J.  Crittendeu,  did  him  the  signal  honor  of  filing  a 
copy  of  his  brief  with  the  Supreme  Court,  when  the 
case  reached  that  tribunal  in  January,  1863,  at  a  time 
when  Benjamin  himself  was  premier  of  the  Confed 
erate  cabinet."  1  This  was  an  honest  confession  that 
they  could  not  hope  to  improve  upon  the  cogency  of 
the  plea  of  the  ''rebel." 

From  far  California  the  lawyer  hastened  back  to 
find  war  in  the  political  atmosphere  in  Louisiana  and 
at  Washington.  He  had  not  returned  when  the  ses 
sion  opened,  but  arrived  shortly  afterward.  During 
all  the  summer  and  autumn,  he  had  been  absent  from 
his  state  and  silent  on  the  political  issues.  Now  that 
the  expected  had  really  happened,  and  the  "  Black 
Bepublican"  was  actually  elected  President,  men  were 
forced  to  show  whether  they  meant  to  make  good  the 
threats  uttered  during  the  campaign ;  and  not  a  few 
had  wavered,  hesitated,  weakened  in  the  face  of  the 
crisis  in  a  way  that  left  constituencies  most  uncertain 
as  to  what  their  representatives  would  really  do. 
Though  known  as  a  secession  man,  Benjamin  had  not 
stumped  the  state,  making  threats  of  disunion  in  case 
of  Lincoln's  election ;  one  had  to  be  vociferous  for 
Southern  rights  to  be  heard  above  the  din  then  making, 
and  Benjamin  was  not  half  prompt  enough  in  an 
nouncing  his  separatist  views  to  suit  the  excited  people. 

1  See  Kohler,  p.  71,  and  for  further  details  of  the  case,  2  Black's 
U.  S.  Reports  1,  vol.  67. 


PRESIDENTIAL  CAMPAIGN  OP  1860      203 

At  one  time  the  New  Orleans  papers '  report  that  he  is 
to  make  a  strong  Union  speech  in  the  Senate,  and  a 
fortnight  later,  more  correctly,  that  he  is  counted  on 
for  a  strong  speech  in  favor  of  secession ;  certainly, 
however,  the  correspondent  of  the  Picayune  was  right 
when  he  stated  that  "  Mr.  Benjamin  opposes  secession, 
except  in  the  last  resort. " 

That  last  resort,  however,  in  his  judgment,  had  been 
already  reached.  The  Delta  of  December  23d,  pub 
lished  a  letter  from  Benjamin  himself,  dated  at  Wash 
ington,  December  8th,  in  which  he  briefly  and  un 
equivocally  outlines  his  opinions.  He  believed  : 

1  i  1.  That  the  feeling  of  a  large  number,  if  not  a 
majority,  of  the  people  of  the  North  is  hostile  to  our 
interests ;  that  this  feeling  has  been  instilled  into  the 
present  generation  from  its  infancy  ;  that  it  is  founded 
upon  the  mistaken  belief  that  the  people  of  the  North 
are  responsible  for  the  existence  of  slavery  in  the 
South  ;  that  this  conviction  of  a  personal  responsibility 
for  what  they  erroneously  believe  to  be  a  sin,  springs 
chiefly  from  the  consideration  that  they  are,  with  us, 
members  of  a  common  government,  and  that  the 
Union  itself  is  thus  made  the  principal  cause  of  hostile 
interference  by  them  with  our  institutions. 

"  2.  That  no  just  reason  exists  for  hoping  for  any 
change  in  Northern  feeling,  and  no  prospect  remains 
of  our  being  permitted  to  live  in  peace  and  security 
within  the  Union. 

"3.  That,  therefore,  the  interest  of  the  South,  the 
very  instinct  of  self-preservation,  demands  a  prompt 
severance  of  all  connection  with  a  government  which 
has  itself  become  an  obstacle  to  what  it  was  designed 

1  Picayune  and  others,  Dec.  11 ;  cf.  Dec.  16  and  23. 


204  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIH 

to  effect,  viz. ,  '  Insuring  domestic  tranquillity,  and  pro 
moting  general  welfare.7 

"  4.  That  to  effect  this  purpose  separate  state  action 
is  vitally  necessary.  .  .  . 

1  i  The  opinions  thus  hurriedly  expressed  have  been 
deliberately  formed.  They  have  been  gradually  forced 
upon  me  by  intercourse  with  the  accredited  represent 
atives  of  Northern  sentiment,  and  each  day  adds  to 
my  conviction  of  their  truth.'7 

At  this  turning  point  in  Benjamin's  life  the  biog 
rapher  may  be  pardoned  for  citing  at  such  length  a 
manifesto  that  sets  forth  so  little  of  which  we  need  have 
been  in  doubt.  With  the  deliberate  statement  of  his 
convictions  in  the  first  three  articles  of  this  creed 
we  cannot  be  startled;  for  all  of  this  Benjamin  had 
said  before,  and  was  to  say  again,  more  eloquently.  It 
does  surprise  us,  as  showing  an  advance  to  the  extreme 
radical  position  of  the  secessionists,  to  find  him  urging 
separate  state  action,  i.  e.,  secession  first,  and  attempts 
to  cooperate  with  other  seceding  states  afterward. 
This,  nevertheless,  was  no  bait  hastily  thrown  out 
to  the  extremists  in  Louisiana,  but  a  deliberate 
opinion.  He  reaffirmed  it  in  signing  the  address  of 
Southern  congressmen  to  their  constituents,1  stating 
their  belief  that  "the  honor,  safety,  and  independence 
of  the  Southern  people  require  the  organization  of  a 
Southern  confederacy — a  result  to  be  obtained  only  by 
separate  state  action  ;  that  the  primary  object  of  each 
slave-holding  state  ought  to  be  its  speedy  and  absolute 
separation  from  a  union  with  hostile  states."  But, 
once  admitting  the  right  of  secession,  and  convinced 
that  the  time  had  come  to  exercise  that  right,  it  would 

1  Dec.  14  ;  see  Delta,  Dec.  22. 


PKESIDEOTIAL  CAMPAIGN  OF  1860      205 

be  difficult  to  deny  that  this  separate  action  by  the 
states  was  expedient,  nay,  that  it  was  the  only  prac 
ticable  way  of  meeting  the  situation.  The  argument 
to  this  effect  is  presented,  though  not  with  much  co 
gency,  in  an  address  to  the  Louisiana  Convention, 1 
signed  by  Benjamin  and  Slidell.  The  strongest  plea 
would  have  been  the  simplest :  in  beginning  a  revolu 
tion  promptness  not  only  gives  vigor  to  the  revolutionary 
cause  but  demoralizes  the  established  forces.  This,  how 
ever,  would  have  involved  the  confession  that  secession 
was  nothing  short  of  revolution,  a  confession  that  few 
of  the  Southern  politicians  cared  to  make,  though  we 
shall  see  Benjamin  very  distinctly  resting  the  Southern 
case  on  the  inherent  right  of  revolution,  in  the  last 
great  speeches  he  made  in  the  Senate. 

In  reviewing  what  we  have  had  to  say  of  his  oratory 
in  the  Senate,  there  may  seem  to  be  too  great  copious 
ness  of  superlatives  in  its  praise,  and  much  iteration, 
nearly  all  of  the  longer  orations  being  on  the  same 
theme — the  exposition  of  Southern  rights.  By  no 
means  shall  we  regret  the  first  charge  as  a  fault ;  the 
last  is  self-evident.  Let  any  one  who  can,  regardless 
of  political  opinions,  be  roused  to  a  genuine  feeling  for 
the  mere  grace  of  expression,  dazzling  brilliance  of 
reasoning  and  withering  force  of  sarcasm  ;  let  any  one, 
in  short,  who  has  a  love  for  style  and  an  interest  in 
forensics  read  this  splendid  series  of  orations,  and  then 
formulate  a  judicious  estimate  of  Benjamin  as  an  orator 
and  expounder  of  the  political  principles  in  which  the 
South  believed.  Such  a  one,  I  am  assured,  would  find 
it  difficult  to  express  himself  in  strictly  measured 
terms.  And  so  it  is  that  we  must  preface  a  thrilling 

1  Sm.  14,  1861 ;  Delta,  Jan.  26. 


206  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

oration,  delivered  in  the  Senate  on  the  last  day  of  the 
year  1860. 

The  first  aim  of  this  address 1  is  to  make  clear  the  ac 
tual,  practical  situation  in  South  Carolina  now  that  she 
has  seceded  ;  to  establish  the  right  of  secession  ;  and  to 
show  the  wrong  and  the  folly  of  the  course  proposed  by 
the  administration.  At  the  beginning,  however,  before 
the  statement  of  the  principal  part  of  his  aim,  he  refers 
to  his  speech  of  May  2,  1856,  and  in  a  few  simple  phrases 
recites  the  most  potent  of  the  causes  for  the  unexampled 
bitterness  and  violence  of  Southern  feeling  toward  the 
North  :  "Mr.  President,  it  has  been  justly  said  that 
this  is  no  time  for  crimination ;  and,  sir,  it  is  in  no 
such  spirit,  but  with  the  simple  desire  to  free  myself 
personally,  as  a  public  servant,  from  all  responsibility 
for  the  present  condition  of  affairs,  that  I  desire  to 
recall  to  the  Senate  some  remarks  made  by  me  in  de 
bate  more  than  four  years  ago,  in  which  I  predicted 
the  precise  state  of  public  feeling  now,  and  pointed 
out  the  two  principal  causes  that  were  certain  to  pro 
duce  that  state.  The  first  was  the  incessant  attack  of 
the  Eepublicans,  not  simply  on  the  interests,  but  on 
the  feelings  and  sensibilities  of  a  high-spirited  people 
by  the  most  insulting  language  and  the  most  offensive 
epithets  ;  the  other  was  their  fatal  success  in  persuad 
ing  their  followers  that  these  constant  aggressions 
could  be  continued  and  kept  up  with  no  danger  ;  that 
the  South  was  too  weak,  and  too  conscious  of  weak 
ness,  to  dare  resistance.'7  Hereupon  follows  the  quo 
tation  reiterating  his  disbelief  in  the  possibility  of  a 
peaceable  dissolution  of  the  Union.  As  Benjamin 
intimates,  and  as  some  Northern  writers  are  now  be- 

1  Globe,  1860-61,  Part  I,  p.  212,  et.  aeq. 


PBESIDENTIAL  CAMPAIGN  OF  1860      207 

ginning  to  comprehend,  it  was  not  so  much  what  the 
Eepublicans  or  even  the  Abolitionists — and  the  people 
of  the  South  were  convinced  that  the  two  were  Siamese 
twins— had  done  or  might  do  that  wrought  them  to 
the  pitch  of  frenzy  and  vicious,  uncontrollable  rage 
against  the  North  ;  it  was  the  things  they  said,  and 
very  horrid  things  they  were,  that  galled.  Nay,  even 
if  the  North  did  not  speak,  she  thought  these  things ; 
and,  half -conscious  of  being  on  the  defensive,  with  the 
opinion  of  the  civilized  world  against  her,  the  South 
could  not  bear  to  be  so  regarded.  Unless  one  has 
personally  experienced  that  sort  of  utterly  childish  and 
yet  wholly  human  temper,  one  can  hardly  account  for 
Southern  feeling. 

In  the  subsequent  portion  of  the  speech  Benjamin 
proceeds  to  a  consideration  of  the  existing  situation  in 
South  Carolina,  and  the  impending  secession  of  seven 
other  states.  Then  he  squarely  presents  the  question  : 
Shall  we  recognize  the  fact  that  South  Carolina  has 
become  an  independent  state,  or  shall  we  wage  war 
upon  her  ?  As  to  her  right  to  become  an  independent 
state,  to  secede,  that  he  plants  firmly  on  the  inherent 
right  of  revolution.  "  From  the  time  that  this  people 
declared  its  independence  of  Great  Britain,  the  right 
of  the  people  to  self-government  in  its  fullest  and 
broadest  extent  has  been  a  cardinal  principle  of 
American  liberty.  None  deny  it.  And  in  that  right, 
to  use  the  language  of  the  Declaration  itself,  is  in 
cluded  the  right,  whenever  a  form  of  government  be 
comes  destructive  of  their  interests  or  their  safety,  i  to 
alter  or  to  abolish  it,  and  to  institute  a  new  govern 
ment,  laying  its  foundation  on  such  principles  and 
organizing  its  powers  in  such  form  as  to  them  shall 


208  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

seem  most  likely  to  effect  their  safety  and  happi 
ness.  > " 

But  quite  aside  from  the  right  of  revolution,  there 
is,  he  maintains,  a  right  of  secession.  Once  more  he 
marshals,  with  force  and  lucidity,  the  historical  and 
constitutional  arguments  in  support  of  this  idea.  But 
even  granting  that  South  Carolina  has  no  right  to 
secede,  that  she  is  utterly  mistaken,  it  is  a  patent  fact 
that  she  has  seceded  :  "  You  still  have  the  same  issue 
to  meet,  face  to  face.  You  must  permit  her  to  with 
draw  in  peace,  or  you  must  declare  war.  That  is,  you 
must  coerce  the  state  itself,  or  you  must  permit  her  to 
depart  in  peace.  There  is  nothing  whatever  that  can 
render  for  an  instant  tenable  the  attempted  distinction 
between  coercing  a  state  itself,  and  coercing  all  the 
individuals  in  the  manner  now  proposed.'7  He  dis 
poses  of  this  idea  by  a  reductio  ad  dbsurdum  similar  to 
the  familiar  one  in  Webster's  reply  to  Hayne.  For, 
he  says,  if  there  be  anything  in  this  notion,  it  should 
stand  the  test  of  practical  application.  Now  suppose  a 
violation  of  United  States  laws  in  South  Carolina,  who 
is  to  arrest  the  violator  ?  There  is  no  United  States 
marshal  there  now.  Suppose  him  arrested,  who  is  to 
try  him?  Is  there  a  Federal  judge  there?  And 
granted  the  judge,  where  will  you  get  a  jury  that  will 
recognize  your  jurisdiction,  much  less  one  that  will 
convict,  in  a  community  that  has  almost  unanimously 
repudiated  all  connection  with  you  ? 

He  accuses  the  Eepublican  party  of  putting  a  false 
and  treacherous  construction  on  the  Constitution,  to 
the  prejudice  of  the  South,  as  Ehadamistus  swore  to 
Mithridates  that  he  would  use  neither  steel  nor  poison 
against  him,  and  kept  this  promise  by  smothering  his 


PEESIDENTIAL  CAMPAIGN  OP  1860      209 

captive.  "  You  do  not  propose  to  enter  into  our  states, 
you  say,  and  what  do  we  complain  of?  You  do  not 
pretend  to  enter  into  our  states  to  kill  or  destroy  our 
institutions  by  force.  Oh,  no  !  You  imitate  the  faith 
of  Rhadamistus  :  you  propose  simply  to  close  us  in  an 
embrace  that  will  suffocate  us.  You  do  not  propose  to 
fell  the  tree ;  you  promised  not.  You  merely  propose 
to  girdle  it,  that  it  die.  And  then,  when  we  tell  you 
that  we  did  not  understand  this  bargain  this  way,  and 
that  your  acting  upon  it  in  this  spirit  releases  us  from 
the  obligations  that  accompany  it ;  that  under  no  cir 
cumstances  can  we  consent  to  live  together  under  that 
interpretation,  and  say :  *  We  will  go  from  you ;  let 
us  go  in  peace ; 7  we  are  answered  by  your  leading 
spokesman :  l  Oh,  no,  you  cannot  do  that ;  we  have 
no  objection  to  it  personally,  but  we  are  bound  by  our 
oaths :  if  you  attempt  it,  your  people  will  be  hanged 
for  treason.  We  have  examined  this  Constitution 
thoroughly  ;  we  have  searched  it  out  with  a  fair  spirit, 
and  we  can  find  warrant  in  it  for  releasing  ourselves 
from  the  obligation  of  giving  you  any  of  its  benefits, 
but  our  oaths  force  us  to  tax  you ;  we  can  dispense 
with  everything  else  ;  but  our  consciences,  we  protest 
upon  our  souls,  will  be  sorely  worried  if  we  do  not  take 
your  money.'  That  is  the  proposition  of  the  honor 
able  senator  from  Ohio,  in  plain  language.  He  can 
avoid  everything  else  under  the  Constitution  in  the 
way  of  secession  ;  but  how  he  is  to  get  rid  of  the  duty 
of  taking  our  money  he  cannot  see." 

After  this  touch  of  ridicule,  drawing  laughter  from 
his  auditors,  a  short  transition  brings  on  the  eloquent 
peroration,  delivered  with  such  dramatic  effect  that 
those  who  heard — and  some  live  still — never  forgot  .it : 


210  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

"  And  now,  senators,  within  a  few  weeks  wre  part  to 
meet  as  senators  in  one  common  council  chamber  of 
the  nation  no  more  forever.  We  desire,  we  beseech 
you,  let  this  parting  be  in  peace.  I  conjure  you  to 
indulge  in  no  vain  delusion  that  duty  or  conscience, 
interest  or  honor,  imposes  upon  you  the  necessity  of 
invading  our  states  or  shedding  the  blood  of  our  people. 
You  have  no  possible  justification  for  it.  I  trust  it  is 
in  no  craven  spirit,  and  with  no  sacrifice  of  the  honor 
or  dignity  of  niy  own  state,  that  I  make  this  last 
appeal,  but  from  far  higher  and  holier  motives.  If, 
however,  it  shall  prove  vain ;  if  you  are  resolved  to 
pervert  the  government  framed  by  the  fathers  for  the 
protection  of  our  rights  into  an  instrument  for  subjugat 
ing  and  enslaving  us,  then,  appealing  to  the  Supreme 
Judge  of  the  universe  for  the  rectitude  of  our  inten 
tions,  we  must  meet  the  issue  that  you  force  upon  us 
as  best  becomes  freemen  defending  all  that  is  dear  to 
man.  What  may  be  the  fate  of  this  horrible  contest, 
no  man  can  tell,  none  pretend  to  foresee;  but  this 
much  I  will  say  :  the  fortunes  of  war  may  be  adverse 
to  our  arms  ;  you  may  carry  desolation  into  our  peace 
ful  land,  and  with  torch  and  fire  you  may  set  our 
cities  in  flames ;  you  may  even  emulate  the  atrocities 
of  those  who,  in  the  war  of  the  Eevolution,  hounded 
on  the  bloodthirsty  savage  to  attack  upon  the  de 
fenseless  frontier ;  you  may,  under  the  protection  of 
your  advancing  armies,  give  shelter  to  the  furious 
fanatics  who  desire,  and  profess  to  desire,  nothing 
more  than  to  add  all  the  horrors  of  a  servile  insurrec 
tion  to  the  calamities  of  civil  war ;  you  may  do  all 
this, — and  more,  too,  if  more  there  be — but  you  never 
can  subjugate  us ;  you  never  can  convert  the  free  sons 


PRESIDENTIAL  CAMPAIGN  OF  1860      211 

of  the  soil  into  vassals,  paying  tribute  to  your  power ; 
and  you  never,  never  can  degrade  them  to  the  level  of 
an  inferior  and  servile  race.  Never  !  Never  ! " 

Then  followed,  says  the  Globe,  such  a  burst  of  ap 
plause  in  the  galleries  that  the  chair  ordered  the 
gentlemen's  gallery  to  be  closed;  and  immediately 
thereafter  the  Senate  adjourned.  At  the  season  of 
Christmas  holidays,  and  when  the  young  were  watch 
ing  every  move  with  frantic  enthusiasm,  the  old  with 
feelings  wherein  doubt,  regret,  fear  mingled  with  un 
quenchable  sympathies  for  the  cause  of  their  own 
state,  many  visitors  had  come  to  Washington.  Upon 
them,  eager  listeners  to  the  speeches  made  by  promi 
nent  leaders,  no  longer  to  persuade  House  or  Senate, 
but  as  vindications  of  their  course  before  the  nation, 
as  trumpet  calls  to  their  friends  and  defiance  to  their 
foes,  this  address  of  Benjamin's  had  telling  effect. 
One,  who  came  as  a  schoolboy  on  his  holidays  to  see 
the  sights  of  the  capital  in  this  time  of  storm  and 
stress,  told  the  writer  of  this  scene  at  its  close,  and  of 
the  wild  cheers  of  himself  and  his  companions.  He 
could  recite  a  few  of  the  concluding  phrases,  though 
he  had  not  read  the  speech  since,  so  lasting  was  the 
impression  on  his  memory.  Tradition  has  associated 
with  the  Louisianian's  real  farewell  to  the  Senate,  to 
be  mentioned  presently,  a  much  quoted  remark  by  Sir 
George  Cornewall  Lewis,  but  one  is  not  so  sure  that 
it  might  not  more  fitly  apply  here.  "  Have  you  read 
Benjamin's  speech?"  he  is  reported  to  have  asked 
Lord  Sherbrooke,  adding,  "It  is  better  than  our  Ben- 
jamiu  [Disraeli]  could  have  done." 

The  press  of  the  day  recognized  this  as  the  senator's 
supreme  effort,  and  it  compelled  the  admiration  even 


212  JTJDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

of  hostile  papers.  One  of  the  Northern  journals  gives 
so  interesting  a  pen-picture  of  the  orator  as  he 
spoke  that  we  must  not  pass  it  by  :  *  "  He  made  a 
capital  speech  ;  quiet,  and  if  not  exactly  dignified,  his 
manner  was  self-possessed  and  resolute.  He  went  over 
the  whole  ground  of  Southern  causes  of  complaint 
against  the  North  as  coolly  and  dispassionately  as  if 
arguing  a  case  before  the  Supreme  Court.  There  was 
no  fine  speaking  j  no  appeal  to  the  feelings ;  and 
yet  the  attention  of  the  galleries  was  unbroken.  The 
ladies,  too,  listened  as  closely  as  the  reporters.  He 
summed  up  his  argument  very  calmly,  read  from  a 
written  paper,  in  a  measured  legal  tone,  the  causes  of 
difference,  and  then  concluded.  This  conclusion  was 
a  telling  shot.  He  spoke  coolly  of  the  approaching 
dissolution  of  the  Union,  and  the  contest  that  might 
ensue.  He  enumerated  the  horrors  of  civil  war — 
alluded  to  the  probability  of  the  South' s  not  being 
able  to  defend  herself.  It  was  all  repeated  over  as 
calmly  as  had  been  his  authorities.  He  stood  in  a 
simple  position,  between  two  desks,  one  foot  crossed 
over  the  other,  no  attitude,  no  gesture.  As  he  reached 
the  close,  he  had  one  hand  in  his  pocket,  the  other 
negligently  toying  with  a  vest  chain.  He  balanced 
his  head  a  little  to  and  fro,  in  a  truly  professional  man 
ner.  Only  his  black  eyes  showed  the  emotion  he  must 
have  felt.  They  were  elongated,  as  BacheFs  some 
times  became,  when  at  her  stillest,  most  concentrated 
points  of  acting — the  quiet  curse  in  Camille,  for  ex 
ample — scintillating  with  light ;  a  faint  smile,  just  a 
little  scornful,  as  he  said,  '  You  may  set  our  cities  in 
flames  .  .  .  you  will  never  subjugate  us.'  He  let 

1  Philadelphia  Bulletin,  quoted  in  Delta,  Jan.  16. 


PKESIDENTIAL  CAMPAIGN  OF  1860      213 

go  of  his  vest  chain,  and  put  his  other  hand  coolly 
into  his  pocket,  and,  as  he  half- turned  to  take  his  seat, 
he  added :  i  An  enslaved  and  servile  race  you  can 
never  make  of  us — never  !  never  ! '  This  reiteration 
of  the  word  t  never '  was  as  free  from  emotion  as  if  he 
had  been  insisting  on  some  simple  point  of  law,  which 
could  not  be  decided  in  any  different  way.  But,  free 
from  emotion  as  it  was,  it  produced  the  greatest  effect. 
The  whole  gallery,  on  all  sides,  burst  out  as  in  one 
voice,  in  uncontrollable  applause. " 

But  once  more  was  the  silvery  voice  of  the  gifted 
leader  from  Louisiana  to  charm  the  Senate  in  a  set 
address.  The  interval  before  his  withdrawal  from  that 
body  was  filled  with  schemes  of  compromise  that  might, 
so  their  advocates  hoped,  extinguish  the  conflagration 
already  begun.  Among  the  people  and  the  represent 
atives  of  the  South,  there  was  diligent,  even  feverish 
preparation  for  separation  from  the  Union ;  since  it 
must  come,  they  seemed  to  think  delay  a  dishonor. 
They  would  show  the  insulting  Yankees,  who  had  be 
lieved  this  but  one  more  Southern  "  bluff,"  that  the 
other  states  were  ready  to  stand  by  South  Carolina,  to 
the  uttermost.  Among  the  Eepublicans  of  set  pur 
pose,  it  appears,  there  was  dogged  or  sullen  si 
lence,  resolute  and  exasperating  inaction.  In  Congress 
they  ceased  from  troubling  with  those  too  righteous 
and  too  irritating  disquisitions  on  the  iniquity  of 
slavery  and  of  the  slave-holder.  They  said  nothing  ; 
nor  would  they  do  anything,  either  aggressive  or 
of  conciliatory  tendency.  They  seemed  content  to 
block  all  efforts  at  compromise  and  let  Southern  rash 
ness  lead  the  South  whither  it  would.  Among  the 
moderate  men  of  all  parties,  forlorn  old  Whigs  and 


214  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

Americans,  and  Northern  Democrats,  cowed  by  the 
impending  ruin  of  their  long  triumphant  party,  there 
was  much  despairing  negotiation.  The  most  notable 
attempt  was  the  compromise  proposed  by  Senator 
Crittenden,  of  Kentucky,  who  nobly,  though  fruit 
lessly,  strove  to  emulate  the  great  statesman  from 
Kentucky  who  had  twice  saved  the  Union  when  its 
stability  seemed  endangered. 

The  Crittenden  Compromise  was  a  sort  of  wet  blanket 
or  patent  fire  extinguisher  with  which  certain  opti 
mists  hoped  to  put  out  this  national  Vesuvian  eruption. 
Yet,  among  the  might-have-beens,  one  must  not  omit 
to  consider  what  were  the  chances  of  success  of  this 
measure,  and  why  it  failed.  If  you  read  the  story  of 
the  closing  scenes  in  Congress,  during  the  last  months 
of  1860  and  the  beginning  of  1861,  in  the  books  of  the 
historians  of  the  North,  you  will  find  it  said  that 
Mr.  Benjamin  and  five  other  Southern  senators  voted 
against  the  Crittenden  Compromise.  An  examination 
of  the  Congressional  Globe  will  show  that  this  is,  in  the 
mere  letter,  true  ;  Mr.  Benjamin  and  five  other  Southern 
senators  simply  refused  to  vote  at  a  time  when  they 
could  have  defeated  an  amendment  hostile  to  the 
very  spirit  of  the  compromise  offered  by  Crittenden. 
The  amendment  was  carried,  and  these  senators,  so  it  is 
said,  left  the  house  immediately  and  telegraphed  to 
their  respective  states  that  there  was  no  hope  of  set 
tlement  ;  therefore,  say  those  who  accept  the  state 
ment  unquestioned,  upon  these  men  rests  the  awful 
responsibility  of  making  the  war  inevitable,  of  reject 
ing  the  compromise  offered  them.  To  all  of  which 
any  candid  student  must  answer,  "  Positively  not 
proven,77 


PRESIDENTIAL  CAMPAIGN  OF  1860      215 

In  the  first  place,  it  was  no  gracious  offering 
from  the  party  victorious  in  the  late  election,  and 
wickedly  rejected  by  truculent  and  selfish  Southern 
politicians  bent  on  embroiling  the  country  in  a  civil 
war.  On  the  contrary,  proposed  by  a  Southerner,  it 
had  the  support  of  all  the  Southern  members,  exclusive 
of  one  or  two  extremists ;  and  it  met  with  the  all  but 
unanimous  opposition  of  the  Republican  members  of 
the  House  and  of  the  Senate.  In  the  Senate,  par 
ticularly,  they  fought  it  by  every  means  in  their 
power,  and  sought  to  delay  its  consideration,  perhaps 
in  the  hope  that  the  exasperated  South  might  in  the 
meantime  prejudice  her  cause  by  some  violent  out 
break.  At  last,  when  the  question  could  not  longer  be 
kept  from  coming  to  a  vote,  and  after  days  of  debate 
wherein  they  had  all  too  plainly  exposed  the  unre 
lenting  spirit  in  which  they  proposed  to  meet  those 
over  whom  they  had  won  a  doubtful  victory  in  electing 
the  President,  a  Republican  senator,  Mr.  Clark,  of  New 
Hampshire,  moved  an  amendment  to  the  Crittenden 
Compromise  that  he  knew  could  not  be  acceptable  to 
the  South ;  and  every  Republican  senator  voted  for  it. 
And  then — do  you  blame  them? — Mr.  Benjamin  and 
those  five  others  refused  to  help  achieve  a  barren 
victory  in  the  defeat  of  this  amendment,  seeing  in 
what  spirit  the  opposition  was  acting.  They  allowed 
the  compromise  to  go  a  little  earlier  to  the  death 
that  it  could  not  long  have  escaped. 

It  is  a  cheerful  symptom  of  restored  health  in  the 
Union  when  we  find  one  of  the  ablest  of  Northern 
historians,  Mr.  Rhodes,  admitting  the  facts  to  be  as  we 
have  stated  them: l  u  The  truth  is  that  it  was  the 

1  Yol.  in,  p.  267. 


216  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

Eepublicans  who  for  a  second  time  defeated,  for  weal 
or  woe,  the  Crittenden  Compromise."  There  is  an 
other  erroneous  impression  concerning  Benjamin  and 
the  other  Southern  leaders  that  Mr.  Khodes  may  help 
us  to  correct,  especially  since  contemporary  opinions 
on  the  same  side  may  be  cited. 

What  of  Benjamin'  s  brilliant  talents,  it  may  be 
asked,  if  they  were  deliberately  and  wickedly  used  to 
encourage  the  people  in  the  fatal  policy  of  secession  ;  to 
fan  the  flame  of  sectional  hate  ;  to  make  inevitable  the 
bloody  and  desolating  war  from  which  the  South  has 
not  yet  fully  recovered!  That  is  what  Mr.  Blaine, 
in  his  book  called  Twenty  Years  of  Congress  says  of 
Judah  P.  Benjamin,  "  the  Mephistopheles  of  the 
Southern  Confederacy."  That  is  what  many  on  the 
other  side  and  some  even  on  his  own  said,  as  if 
the  great  conflict  whose  premonitory  thunders  had 
been  heard  for  a  generation  were  the  work  of  a  little 
junto  of  selfish  politicians,  such  as  Jeff  Davis,  Toombs, 
and  Benjamin  on  the  one  side,  and  Seward,  Chase,  and 
Sumner  on  the  other.  In  answer  to  this,  Mr.  Ehodes 
is  of  opinion  that  the  popular  enthusiasm  for  secession 
in  the  South  quite  outran  the  politicians  : l  u  Davis 
and  Toombs  are  always  classed  among  the  conspirators, 
yet  Davis  was  in  favor  of  delay  ;  and  Toombs,  in  spite 
of  his  vehement  talk  at  Washington,  could  not  keep 
pace  with  the  secession  movement  in  his  state.  The 
South  Carolina  radicals  murmured  that  the  people 
were  hampered  by  the  politicians." 

In  commenting  on  Benjamin's  speech  of  December 
31st,  the  Cincinnati  Commercial  said  :2  "No  one  who 

1  Vol.  in,  p.  276. 

2  Quoted  in  Delta,  January  16th. 


PEESIDENTIAL  CAMPAIGN  OP  1860      217 

understands  the  brilliant  powers  of  Benjamin  can  fail  to 
feel  the  deepest  sorrow  that  a  man  of  such  splendid 
gifts  should  have  abused  them  so  miserably  in  a  cause 
so  hopeless.  He  might  have  saved  Louisiana  from  the 
desperate  experiment  of  secession,  and  rolled  back  the 
flood  of  Southern  fanaticism  from  the  banks  of  the 
Mississippi,  thus  entitling  himself  to  the  gratitude  of 
the  country,  and  adding  to  the  lustre  of  his  reputation 
as  an  orator  the  brighter  and  better  fame  of  enlarged 
and  elevated  patriotism.'7  To  this  the  Delta  replied  : 
"  Before  Mr.  Benjamin  had  returned  from  California, 
the  secession  movement  had  attained  an  irresistible 
power  in  this  state.  It  was  not  even  known  what 
his  views  were,  and,  indeed,  it  was  not  until  the 
state  convention  had  been  ordered  by  the  legis 
lature,  in  view  of  secession,  that  a  report  that 
he  was  about  to  make  a  Union  speech  was  contra 
dicted.  The  idea  that  Mr.  Benjamin,  or  any  other 
statesman,  politician,  or  orator  could  have  arrested  or 
even  checked  this  impulse  grows  out  of  that  prevailing 
delusion  at  the  North  .  .  .  that  the  secession 
movement  originated  with  politicians.  This  is  the 
greatest  error  ever  committed  by  a  sagacious  people. 
There  has  been  no  excitement  or  movement  in  our 
political  history  with  which  the  politicians  have  had 
so  little  and  the  people  so  much  .to  do.  Men  in  high 
places  and  honors  are  not  eager  or  prompt  to  engage  in 
revolutions.  It  happens  that  all  the  prominent  politi 
cians  engaged  in  the  secession  movement  occupied  the 
highest  places  in  the  government  of  a  great  republic 
of  thirty-three  states.  In  connecting  themselves  with 
the  secession  of  the  South,  they  yield  up  honor  and 
places  which  would  satisfy  the  highest  civil  ambition. 


218  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

They  do  so  to  embark  on  the  uncertain  and  tempestuous 
sea  of  revolution." 

Thus  calmly,  in  the  middle  of  January,  before  the 
state  had  formally  seceded,  the  press  talked  of  "  revolu 
tion"  !  The  history  of  the  world  has  no  similar  page 
to  show,  nothing  that  compares  with  this  in  cool  audac 
ity.  As  Americans,,  and  used  to  free  speech  and  a 
free  press,  we  scarcely  appreciate  this,  or  realize  that 
in  any  other  country  the  leaders  who  thus  boldly  an 
nounced  their  determination  to  form  a  new  government 
would  have  been  laid  by  the  heels  long  before  matters 
reached  such  a  crisis.  But  the  preparations  for  seces 
sion  were  allowed  to  proceed  without  interruption, 
though  sometimes  a  trifle  hastened  by  an  intimation 
of  possible  interference  ;  and  all  the  while  the  United 
States  mail  went  to  states  that  had  proclaimed  or 
were  proclaiming  themselves  not  united.  At  length 
Louisiana  joined  her  fortunes  to  those  of  secession 
(January  26),  but  seventeen  out  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty  members  in  the  convention  remaining  steadfast 
against  immediate  withdrawal  from  the  Union.  Her 
senators  and  representatives  (all  save  one  of  the  latter) 
had  but  awaited  the  command  of  their  state  to  bid  fare 
well  to  Washington.  Accordingly,  on  February  4th 
Mr.  Slidell  sent  up  to  be  read  by  the  Secretary  of 
the  Senate  the  ordinance  to  dissolve  "  the  union  be 
tween  the  state  of  Louisiana  and  the  other  states  united 
with  her  under  the  compact  entitled  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  of  America,"  and  delivered  a 
speech,  in  explanation  of  his  course  and  of  the  course 
of  his  state,  which  Mr.  Blaine  describes  as  "  insolent." 

Benjamin,  too,  made  a  speech,  his  real  farewell  to 
the  Senate,  and  the  same  partisan  writer  speaks  of  its 


PRESIDENTIAL  CAMPAIGN  OF  1860      219 

' '  toiie  of  moderation  as  contrasted  with  the  offensive 
dictation  of  Mr.  Slidell."1  We  could  scarcely  find  a 
better  chance  to  point  out  the  effect  of  Benjamin's 
manner  and  delivery  in  softening  what  he  had  to  say. 
For  his  colleague's  address,  without  any  but  the  most 
commonplace  devices  of  oratory,  is  in  its  matter,  one 
would  think,  far  less  radical,  severe,  and  offensive 
than  Benjamin's.  Another  contemporary  who  heard 
this  speech  bears  testimony  of  similar  purport  in  a 
passage  which  will  serve  our  purpose  well  to  quote  at 
some  length. 

General  E.  D.  Keyes,2  of  the  United  States  Army, 
was  at  the  time  a  young  officer  in  Washington,  and 
used  to  visit  Congress  and  report  to  General  Scott  the 
doings  and  sayings  of  the  politicians,  having  a  sol 
dier's  innate  distrust  of  all  such,  whether  Northern  or 
Southern.  He  writes : 

1  i  When  I  heard  Mr.  Sumner  and  others  proclaim 
the  superiority  of  the  North  in  j  urists,  men  of  science, 
historians,  orators,  merchants,  mechanics,  schools  and 
general  intelligence,  I  felt  disposed  to  stone  them. 
Every  speech  of  the  Northern  senators  had  something 
deprecatory  in  it,  and  that  at  a  time  when  all  the  pow 
ers  of  the  government  were  in  the  hands  of  Southern 
men.  Notwithstanding  iny  hostility  of  sentiment,  I 
admitted  the  graceful  dignity  and  splendid  elocution 
of  the  Southern  senators,  as  well  as  the  candid  selfish 
ness  with  which  they  told  how  long  and  grievously 
they  had  groaned  over  the  exactions  of  the  North.  I 
heard  the  farewell  speeches  of  Senators  Jefferson  Davis 
of  Mississippi  and  Benjamin  of  Louisiana.  .  .  . 

1  Twenty  Years  of  Congress,  Vol.  I,  p.  249. 

2  Fifty  Years'  Observation,  p.  49. 


220  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

Mr.  Benjamin  appeared  to  me  essentially  different 
from  Mr.  Davis.  Notwithstanding  his  incomparable 
abilities  and  the  fact  that  he  became  a  secessionist  with 
great  reluctance,  he  never  excited  animosity  in  me  or 
in  any  other  Northern  man  so  far  as  I  am  aware. 
When  I  listened  to  his  last  speech  in  the  Senate,  I  was 
transported  out  of  myself.  Such  verbal  harmony  I 
had  never  heard  before  !  There  was  neither  violence 
in  his  action  nor  anger  in  his  tone,  but  a  pathos  that 
lulled  my  senses  like  an  opiate  that  fills  the  mind  with 
delightful  illusions.  I  was  conscious  that  it  was  Sen 
ator  Benjamin  who  spoke,  and  that  his  themes  were 
mighty  wrongs  and  desperate  remedies  ;  but  his  words 
I  could  not  recite,  nor  can  I  yet  recall  them.  Memory, 
however,  restores  the  illusive  pleasure  they  left,  which 
is  like  the  impression  I  retain  of  my  youthful  days. ' ' 

And  so  Mr.  Slidell,  saying  merely  matter-of-fact 
things  that  the  situation  rendered  obvious,  and  saying 
them  without  art,  gave  offense ;  while  Benjamin,  say 
ing  things  that  were  a  fierce  attack  upon  the  honesty, 
fairness,  honor  of  his  opponents,  and  saying  them  in 
that  piercingly  melodious  voice,  without  apparent 
passion  and  with  all  the  arts  that  rhetoric  could  teach 
to  make  them  effective  as  well  as  beautiful,  gave  no 
offense, — rather  stirred  his  hostile  listeners  to  mingled 
admiration  and  regret. 

This  speech  of  February  4th '  is  one  that  Louisianiaus 
should  read  with  especial  pride,  as  a  most  able  defense 
of  the  state  against  the  charges  that  had  been  brought 
against  her.  So  very  effective  is  the  argument  that 
Mr.  Blaine,  describing  the  tone  as  "  moderate,"  yet 
covers  four  pages  in  the  attempt  to  answer  it,  while 

1  Globe,  1860-61,  Part  I,  p.  727,  et  seq. 


PKESEDENTIAL  CAMPAIGN  OF  1860      221 

contenting  himself  with  a  paragraph  on  Slidell's  of 
fensive  utterance.  The  theme  of  the  greater  part  of 
the  speech  may  be  best  stated  by  Benjamin  himself : 

"  Sir,  it  has  been  urged  on  more  than  one  occasion, 
in  the  discussions  here  and  elsewhere,  that  Louisiana 
stands  on  an  exceptional  footing.  It  has  been  said  that 
whatever  may  be  the  rights  of  the  states  that  were 
original  parties  to  the  Constitution — even  granting 
their  right  to  resume,  for  sufficient  cause,  those  re 
stricted  powers  which  they  delegated  to  the  general 
government  in  trust  for  their  own  use  and  benefit — 
still  Louisiana  can  have  no  such  right,  because  she  was 
acquired  by  purchase.  Gentlemen  have  not  hesitated 
to  speak  of  the  sovereign  states  formed  out  of  the  ter 
ritory  ceded  by  France  as  property  bought  with  the 
money  of  the  United  States,  belonging  to  them  as  pur 
chasers  ;  and  although  they  have  not  carried  their 
doctrine  to  its  legitimate  results,  I  must  conclude  that 
they  also  mean  to  assert,  on  the  same  principle,  the 
right  of  selling  for  a  price  that  which  for  a  price  was 
bought. 

UI  shall  not  pause  to  comment  on  this  repulsive 
dogma  of  a  party  which  asserts  the  right  of  property 
in  free-born  white  men,  in  order  to  reach  its  cherished 
object  of  destroying  the  right  of  property  in  slave-born 
black  men ;  still  less  shall  I  detain  the  Senate  in 
pointing  out  how  shadowy  the  distinction  between  the 
condition  of  the  servile  African  and  that  to  which  the 
white  freemen  of  my  state  would  be  reduced,  if  it  in 
deed  be  true  that  they  are  bound  to  this  government 
by  ties  that  cannot  be  legitimately  dissevered,  without 
the  consent  of  that  very  majority  which  wields  its 
powers  for  their  oppression.  I  simply  deny  the  fact 


222  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

on  which  the  argument  is  founded.  I  deny  that  the 
province  of  Louisiana,  or  the  people  of  Louisiana, 
were  ever  conveyed  to  the  United  States  for  a  price  as 
property  that  could  be  bought  or  sold  at  will.  With 
out  entering  into  the  details  of  the  negotiation,  the 
archives  of  our  State  Department  show  the  fact  to  be, 
that  although  the  domain,  the  public  lands,  and  other 
property  of  France  in  the  ceded  province,  were  con 
veyed  by  absolute  title  to  the  United  States,  the 
sovereignty  was  not  conveyed  otherwise  than  in  trust. 
.  .  .  What  is  the  express  language  of  the  treaty  ? 
i  The  inhabitants  of  the  ceded  territory  shall  be  incor 
porated  in  the  Union  of  the  United  States  and  admitted 
as  soon  as  possible,  according  to  the  principles  of  the 
Federal  Constitution,  to  the  enjoyment  of  all  the 
rights,  advantages,  and  immunities  of  citizens  of  the 
United  States ;  and  in  the  meantime  they  shall  be 
maintained  and  protected  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  lib 
erty,  property,  and  the  religion  which  they  profess. ' ' ' 

The  basis  of  his  argument  is  thus  strong  historically 
as  against  those  who  held  that  the  states  of  the  Loui 
siana  Purchase  had  less  right  than  any  of  the  original 
thirteen  to  * l  resume  the  powers  delegated  to  the  gen 
eral  government."  We  cannot  follow  him  as  he  de 
velops  his  defense  ;  but  one  fine  outburst  near  the  end 
must  be  cited. 

"  We  are  told  that  .  .  .  the  South  is  in  rebellion 
without  cause,  and  that  her  citizens  are  traitors.  Ee- 
bellion !  The  very  word  is  a  confession ;  an  avowal 
of  tyranny,  outrage,  and  oppression.  It  is  taken  from 
the  despot's  code,  and  has  no  terror  for  other  than 
slavish  souls.  When,  sir,  did  millions  of  people,  as  a 
single  man,  rise  in  organized,  deliberate,  unimpas- 


PKESIDENTIAL  CAMPAIGN  OF  1860      223 

sioned  rebellion  against  justice,  truth,  and  honor  ? 
Well  did  a  great  Englishman  exclaim  on  a  similar 
occasion :  i  You  might  as  well  tell  me  that  they  re 
belled  against  the  light  of  heaven  ;  that  they  rejected 
the  fruits  of  the  earth.  Men  do  not  war  against  their 
benefactors;  they  are  not  mad  enough  to  repel  the 
instincts  of  self-preservation.  I  pronounce  fearlessly 
that  no  intelligent  people  ever  rose,  or  ever  will  rise, 
against  a  sincere,  rational,  and  benevolent  authority. 
No  people  were  ever  born  blind.  Infatuation  is  not  a 
law  of  human  nature.  When  there  is  a  revolt  by  a 
free  people,  with  the  common  consent  of  all  classes  of 
society,  there  must  be  a  criminal  against  whom  that 
revolt  is  aimed.7 

" Traitors!  Treason!  Ay,  sir,  the  people  of  the 
South  imitate  and  glory  in  just  such  treason  as  glowed 
in  the  soul  of  Hampden  ;  just  such  treason  as  leaped  in 
living  flame  from  the  impassioned  lips  of  Henry  ;  just 
such  treason  as  encircles  with  a  sacred  halo  the  undy 
ing  name  of  Washington  ! " 

With  this  last  vigorous  appeal  of  the  eloquent  cham 
pion  of  the  South,  we  close  his  career  in  the  Senate  of 
the  United  States,  a  career  that  rendered  his  name 
illustrious,  that  reflected  honor  on  his  state,  and  that 
was  long  remembered  as  phenomenal.  Senator  Vest ' 
relates  that,  years  afterward,  he  asked  an  old  reporter 
of  the  Senate  who  was  the  best  equipped  member  of 
that  body  he  had  ever  known.  "By  all  odds,"  he 
said,  "Mr.  Benjamin,  of  Louisiana." 

But  before  we  undertake  to  follow  him  in  the 
stormy  course  of  the  next  few  years,  let  us  for  the  sake 
of  simple  justice  to  the  honorable  men  who  took  part  in 

1  Philadelphia  Saturday  Evening  Post. 


224  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

the  Southern  cause,  and  who  conscientiously  believed 
they  were  right,  try  to  get  rid  of  the  notion  that  there 
was  something  monstrously  wrong,  some  great  crime 
in  the  mere  fact  that  the  South  simply  did  not  want  to 
be  any  longer  part  and  parcel  of  a  government  whose 
policies  and  whose  acts  she  did  not  relish.  An  unsuc 
cessful  revolution  always  needs  all  the  apologies  it  can 
procure  at  the  hands  of  the  historian  j  therefore  I  do 
not  fear  misconception  of  my  motives  when  I  venture 
to  state  that  there  was  no  "  crime  of  '61"  ;  that  there 
was  no  conspiracy  of  Southern  politicians  to  wreck  the 
Union,  but  a  popular  movement  for  separation  too 
powerful  to  be  resisted  ;  and  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
New  South,  while  recognizing  fully  and  cheerfully  that 
the  outcome  was  for  the  ultimate  good  of  us  all,  to 
protest  against  the  habit  of  holding  up  Southern  lead 
ers  as  horrible  examples.  The  war  settled  vexed  ques 
tions,  and  in  the  best  way,  forever  ;  the  Union  was  not 
made  to  be  broken,  for 

' '  Our  Union  is  river,  lake,  ocean,  and  sky, 
Man  breaks  not  the  medal,  when  God  cuts  the  die  ! " 

But  let  us  not  be  unjust  to  the  civil  leaders  of  the 
South  any  more  than  to  those  who  led  her  marvelous 
armies. 


CHAPTEE  IX 

ATTORNEY-GENERAL  AND  SECRETARY  OF  WAR 

FROM  Washington,  Benjamin,  a  little  apprehen 
sive  that  he  might  be  arrested  if  he  lingered  at  the 
capital,  hastened  back  to  his  home.  Without  his  own 
consent,  he  had  already  been  mentioned  as  a  delegate  to 
the  Montgomery  Convention  of  the  seceded  states,  but 
received  only  a  scattering  vote,  not  being  seriously 
considered  as  a  candidate. 1  He  had  not  long  been  at 
home  before  a  country  newspaper,2  perhaps  unaware  of 
the  fact  that  Benjamin  was  constitutionally  ineligible 
as  being  of  foreign  birth,  had  hoisted  on  its  front  page 
a  banner  proclaiming  its  choice  for  executive  officers 
of  the  yet  unborn  Confederacy  :  For  President,  Eobert 
Toombs,  of  Georgia ;  for  Vice-President,  J.  P.  Benja 
min,  of  Louisiana.  Can  one  fancy  a  man  of  Benjamin's 
energy  content  to  subside  into  a  position  of  such  hope 
less  inaction  as  that  of  the  Vice-President  ?  But  he 
would  not  have  been  eligible,  even  if  he  had  been 
willing  to  accept  such  an  office.  At  first,  on  his  re 
turn,  he  devoted  himself  to  private  affairs  ;  to  setting 
in  order  the  business  from  which  he  knew  he  would 
soon  be  called.  His  reputation  for  fluency  of  speech 
brought  him  once  more  before  the  citizens  of  New  Or 
leans,  when,  on  the  22d  of  February,  1861,  he  made  his 
last  public  address  there  ;  and  in  it,  we  are  glad  to  say, 

1  True  Delta,  Jan.  30,  31. 

2  Bastrop  Weekly  Dispatch,  quoted  in  Delta,  Feb.  21. 


226  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

there  is  no  cheap  flattery  of  the  people's  vanity,  such 
as  too  many  orators  were  then  indulging  in,  but  the 
truth  as  he  saw  it.  A  memorable  occasion  it  was  to 
all  who  know  the  story  of  Louisiana's  sons  in  the  great 
battles  that  were  soon  to  follow.  For  on  this  anni 
versary  of  Washington's  birth,  the  Washington  Ar 
tillery,  its  laurels  yet  unwon,  was  to  receive  a  flag  on 
behalf  of  the  ladies  of  New  Orleans,  who  had  made  it. 
As  Mr.  Benjamin,  now  no  longer  a  senator  of  the 
United  States,  delivered  his  address  to  the  proud 
young  soldiers,  and  conjured  them  to  defend  this  flag 
with  the  courage  befitting  gallant  men,  he  did  not  for 
get  in  this  hour  of  easy  gratulation  to  emphasize  the 
fact  that  they  would  have  need  of  all  their  courage 
in  the  coming  war.  "I  speak,  gentlemen,"  he  said, 
' '  in  the  belief  that  our  independence  is  not  to  be  main 
tained  without  the  shedding  of  our  blood.  I  know 
that  the  conviction  is  not  shared  by  others.  Heaven 
grant  that  I  may  prove  mistaken.  Yet  fearful  as  is  the 
ordeal,  and  much  as  war  is  to  be  deplored,  it  is  not 
the  unmixed  evil  which  many  consider  it  to  be."  * 

It  seems  a  work  of  supererogation,  and  fatuously 
wearisome  withal,  to  continue  to  pile  up  evidence  that 
Benjamin  knew  there  was  going  to  be  war.  But  we 
must  remember,  in  the  first  place,  how  difficult  it  is  for 
us  to  divest  ourselves  of  the  knowledge  of  the  event. 
We  know  there  was  a  war  ;  but  in  February,  1861,  nay, 
even  in  March  and  April,  there  were  many  in  each 
section  who  thought  there  would  be  none.  There  were 
many  braggarts,  on  each  side,  who  with  brazen  vocifer- 
ousness  assured  their  people  that  the  other  side  would 
not  dare  fight.  It  is  just  another  exhibition  of  Southern 

1  Delta,  Feb.  24  ;  cf .  March  26. 


ATTOENEY-GENEEAL  227 

bluster,  intended  to  scare  us  into  more  abject  submis 
sion,  said  some  at  the  North.  The  cowardly  Yankees 
won't  fight,  and  if  they  dare  do  so,  one  gallant  gentle 
man  is  a  match  for  five  or  six  of  the  low-born  counter- 
juinpers,  said  many  at  the  South.  And  the  North,  in 
the  flush  of  victory,  has  forgotten  these  false  prophets 
in  her  own  household.  The  South,  however,  in  the 
bitterness  of  defeat,  has  not  forgotten  that  siren  voices 
sang  so  false  and  flattering  a  song  to  her.  And  the 
result  has  been  rather  indiscriminate  condemnation  of 
all  the  politicians  alike.  Among  them  all,  I  fancy, 
Alexander  Stephens  is  alone  unharmed  by  this  hasty 
judgment.  Therefore  it  seems  somewhat  needful,  even 
at  the  risk  of  appearing  tedious,  to  show  that  Benjamin, 
at  least,  neither  deceived  his  people  nor  was  deceived 
himself. 

In  the  midst  of  all  this  political  excitement  the 
course  of  life  went  on  much  as  usual  for  Benjamin's 
sisters  in  the  home  in  Nashville  Avenue.  Mrs.  Levy 
could  perceive  that  "  J.  P."  was  deeply  interested  in 
and  excited  by  the  situation.  She  must  have  felt  sure 
that  some  part,  and  that  no  inconspicuous  one,  in  the 
new  government  would  fall  to  him ;  but  he  kept  his 
own  counsel  for  the  present, — came  and  went  as  of  old, 
though  less  frequently  at  this  busy  time,  and  was  as 
cheerful  and  unconcerned  as  if  there  were  ample  assur 
ance  of  peace  and  prosperity.  At  length,  just  after  the 
address  to  the  Washington  Artillery,  his  sisters  no 
ticed  him  packing  his  belongings  as  if  for  a  prolonged 
journey.  When  all  was  ready,  he  told  them  that  he 
had  been  called  to  Montgomery  to  consult  with  Mr. 
Davis,  and  that  he  anticipated  some  service  under  the 
new  government  that  would  probably  so  occupy  his 


228  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

time  as  to  make  it  impossible  for  him  to  see  much  of 
them.  It  was  known  that  Montgomery  would  hardly 
continue  to  be  the  capital  of  the  Confederacy  after  the 
expected  secession  of  Virginia ;  and  so  he  did  not  wish 
them  to  move  there.  He  explained  that,  in  any  event, 
his  means  were  certain  to  be  curtailed  for  a  time,  but 
provided  amply  for  their  present  needs.  They  might, 
if  they  wished,  leave  New  Orleans  ;  but  he  advised 
against  it,  considering  the  city  absolutely  secure  against 
attack,  and  adding  that  it  would  be  easier  for  him  to 
care  for  them  and  to  communicate  with  them  there 
than  in  some  place  where  they  had  no  friends.  And 
so,  bidding  all  an  affectionate  farewell,  with  hope  of 
returning,  if  but  for  a  brief  visit  now  and  then,  he 
left  them.  It  was  the  last  time  they  ever  saw  him. 
For  he  was  too  busy  to  return  in  the  first  days  of  the 
Confederacy ;  and  then  it  so  turned  out  within  little 
more  than  a  year  that  New  Orleans  would  not  have 
given  cordial  greeting  to  her  great  lawyer,  while  after 
ward  came  the  years  of  desperation  when  it  was  im 
possible  for  him  to  leave  Eichmond  but  as  a  fugitive 
from  the  land. 

Mrs.  Levy,  however,  was  a  capable  woman,  and  not 
afraid  of  being  left  to  hold  her  own  in  New  Orleans. 
Her  brother  had  given  her  sufficient  money  for  com 
fort,  if  not  for  luxury,  and  would  supply  more  as 
necessity  arose  from  time  to  time.  She  could  manage 
and  practice  economy  if  need  be.  No  doubt  she  found 
the  truth  of  what  Mrs.  Benjamin  wrote  when  her  hus 
band  preached  more  thrift :  :  "  Oh,  talk  not  to  me  of 
economy  !  it  is  so  fatiguing. "  But  she  did  not  say  so  ; 
and  she  and  her  daughter  and  sister  weathered  the 
storm  in  New  Orleans  as  long  as  they  were  allowed  to 


ATTOENEY-GENEEAL  229 

keep  the  roof  over  their  heads.  We  shall  catch  an 
other  glimpse  of  the  household  when  that  city  is  lost 
to  the  Confederacy. 

The  Delta  of  February  26th  announced  Benjamin's 
nomination  as  Attorney-General  of  the  Confederacy. 
We  can  agree  with  the  editor  that  it  was,  seemingly,  a 
most  excellent  choice  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Davis ;  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  however,  it  was  a  waste  of  good  material. 
The  President,  long  used  to  the  customs  of  political  pa 
tronage  at  Washington,  and  now  doubly  anxious  to 
attach  to  his  government  as  many  of  the  states  as 
possible,  while  pacifying  as  many  of  his  political  op 
ponents  as  possible,  selected  his  first  cabinet  rather 
with  a  view  to  political  effect  than  to  executive 
efficiency.  The  men  chosen  were  not  incapable ;  but 
it  may  be  doubted  if  any  one  of  them  really  fitted  the 
executive  department  over  which  he  was  called  to 
preside  at  a  time  when  only  peculiar  fitness  and  talent 
could  achieve  success  ;  and  it  is  absolutely  certain  that 
several  of  them  could  not  work  in  harmony  with  the 
President  or  with  one  another  as  an  advisory  council. 
Looking  at  this  body  of  advisers,  manifestly  ill  at  ease 
in  one  another's  society  and  representing  widely  differ 
ent  political  views  on  all  but  the  cardinal  point  of 
secession,  one  is  reminded  of  the  good  Washington's  un 
happy  experiment,  the  cabinet  in  which  political  differ 
ences,  wicked  and  dangerous  to  the  peace  of  America, 
were  completely  ignored.  Mr.  Davis,  in  his  Else  and 
Fall,  gives  a  brief  statement  of  his  reasons  for  the 
selections  he  made.  Not  one  of  those  chosen  could 
have  been  called  a  close  friend,  or  even  a  con 
spicuous  political  ally  of  the  President.  It  is  ap 
parent  that  he  was  solicitous  to  secure  men  of  re- 


230  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

spectable  ability,  but  above  all  to  distribute  the 
cabinet  positions  as  equitably  as  might  be  among 
the  states  and  the  political  factious.  In  this  he  was 
but  following  the  precedent  often  set  in  the  United 
States — Lincoln's  first  cabinet  was  so  composed — and 
followed  with  safety  j  but  such  a  composite  group, 
perhaps  only  useless  and  powerless  to  harm  when 
there  was  no  occasion  for  more  than  ordinary  efficiency, 
could  work  great  injury  at  a  time  like  the  present. 
Though  all  of  its  members  were  men  of  some  ability, 
though  most  of  them  had  had  considerable  experience 
in  legislation,  not  one  had  had  any  experience  of  ex 
ecutive  affairs  j  they  were  all  more  used  to  arguing  a 
case  or  debating  a  bill  than  to  carrying  out  executive 
plans  with  promptness  and  decision. 

The  composition  of  the  cabinet,  then,  was  not  for 
tunate.  It  was  a  pity  to  see  a  man  of  such  capacity  as 
Benjamin  wasting  his  time  in  the  child's  play  of 
Attorney -General  to  a  government  that  scarcely  had 
any  courts.  Beyond  giving  an  occasional  opinion  to 
some  executive  officer,  a  matter  of  minutes  to  so  ready 
a  man,  he  was  idle,  so  far  as  the  duties  of  his  own 
almost  superfluous  department  are  concerned  :  Inter 
arma  silent  leges.  We  shall  therefore  have  no  official 
action  of  moment  to  record. 

Mr.  Benjamin  was  thus  frequently  called  upon  by 
the  President  to  undertake  services  sometimes  ap 
parently  trifling,  but  requiring  tact  and  delicacy.  It 
fell  to  his  lot  to  receive  and  entertain  visitors  with 
whom  there  was  nothing  else  to  do,  inquisitive  for 
eigners,  or  importunate  office-seekers.  There  were 
plenty  of  the  latter  at  Montgomery  as  well  as  at 
Washington  ;  one  recalls  Lincoln's  whimsical  remark, 


ATTOENEY-GENEEAL  231 

tliat  lie  felt  like  a  man  letting  lodgings  at  one  end  of 
his  house  while  the  other  was  on  fire.  And  so  Mr. 
Davis  was  dogged  by  relentless  would-be  generals  who 
had  innumerable  hosts  of  gallant  and  totally  un 
equipped  and  undisciplined  soldiers  to  offer ;  or  in 
ventors  who  had  new  weapons  of  destruction.  Ben 
jamin,  being  always  affable  and  a  good  conversational 
ist,  probably  succeeded  better  in  disposing  of  these 
people  without  offense  than  his  more  peremptory  chief ; 
besides  he  was  generally  accessible,  and  could  spare 
more  time  than  other  prominent  members  of  the  gov 
ernment. 

It  is  interesting  to  compare  the  impression  he  made 
upon  two  of  the  rather  notable  visitors  to  Montgomery, 
both  of  whom  came  with  intent  to  take  notes  and 
print.  Mr.  W.  H.  Eussell,  the  correspondent  of  the 
London  Times,  saw  various  members  of  the  Confederate 
government  on  May  9th,1  and  was  seemingly  more 
favorably  impressed  by  Benjamin  than  by  any  one  else  ; 
he  had  more  of  the  manner  and  bearing  of  a  man 
of  the  world.  And  yet  Eussell  obviously  has  some 
distrust  of  the  "short,  stout  man,  with  a  full  face, 
olive-colored,  and  most  decidedly  Jewish  features, 
with  the  brightest  black  eyes,  one  of  which  is  some 
what  diverse  from  the  other,  and  a  brisk,  lively,  agree 
able  manner,  combined  with  much  vivacity  of  speech, 
and  quickness  of  utterance. ' '  He  finds  l '  Mr.  Benj  amiu 
.  .  .  the  most  open,  frank,  and  cordial  of  the  Con 
federates."  But  he  rather  hints  that  frankness  and 
cordiality  too  closely  border  on  indiscretion  in  speech, 
since,  "  in  a  few  seconds  he  was  telling  me  all  about 
the  course  of  government  with  respect  to  privateers 

1  Diary,  Vol.  II,  pp.  252-256. 


232  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

and  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal,  in  order  probably 
to  ascertain  what  were  our  views  in  England  on  the 
subject " — which,  in  fact,  he  did,  without  telling  Mr. 
Eussell  any  more  than  he  could  have  got  out  of  any 
newspaper. 

The  other  observer  of  the  time,  though  not  so  finished 
a  writer  as  the  English  correspondent,  is  really  one  of 
the  most  entertaining  and  useful  of  those  who  have  left  a 
record  of  the  impression  made  by  current  events  in  the 
Confederacy.  Mr.  J.  B.  Jones,  author  of  A  Rebel  War 
ClerWs  Diary,  is  very  honest,  devotedly  loyal  to  the 
South,  and  full  of  shrewdness ;  but  he  is  likewise 
narrow-minded,  and  intensely  conceited  in  that  seem 
ingly  modest  way  which  affects  extreme  humility.  It 
is  easy  to  allow  the  proper  discount  in  his  criticism  of 
the  leaders,  and  so  discounted  his  comments  are  very 
valuable.  He  came  to  Montgomery,  as  he  frankly 
tells  us,  with  the  deliberate  purpose  of  getting  some 
subordinate  position  in  an  important  department, 
where  his  facilities  for  observation  might  be  good,  and 
of  publishing  the  results  of  this  microscopic  study  of 
the  Confederacy  in  book  form  when  the  war  was  over. 
If  the  good  man  did  not  take  himself  quite  so  seriously, 
there  would  be  something  almost  uncanny  about  this 
plan  and  the  deliberateness  with  which  it  was  carried 
out. 

At  first  Jones's  comments  are  very  favorable  to 
Mr.  Benjamin ;  but  something  seems  to  have  turned 
him  against  the  Jewish  lawyer,  whose  religion,  or  race, 
rankles  in  the  writer's  breast.  The  tendency  to  flat 
tery  on  Mr.  Benjamin's  part,  and  the  ease  with  which 
his  subject  succumbed,  is  amusingly  manifested  in  this 
passage,  under  date  of  May  21,  1861,  at  Montgomery  : 


ATTOENEY-GENEEAL  233 

"I  ani  necessarily  making  many  new  acquaintances, 
and  quite  a  number  recognize  me  by  my  books  which 
they  have  read.  Among  this  class  is  Mr.  BeDJamin, 
the  minister  of  justice,  who,  to-day,  informed  me  that 
he  and  Senator  Bayard  had  been  interested,  at  Wash 
ington,  in  my  i  Story  of  Disunion.7  " 

Events  were  hastening  on,  during  this  time  of  com 
parative  inactivity  for  Mr.  Benjamin,  with  a  speed 
that  no  Congressional  action  could  longer  hope  to 
arrest.  Three  weeks  before  Lincoln,  the  untried  West 
erner  at  whose  presumptive  ignorance  or  radicalism 
the  cultured  East  trembled,  could  be  installed  in  office, 
the  Confederates  had  inaugurated  their  President  and 
Vice-President,  both  men  of  national  prominence.  At 
once,  too,  the  Provisional  Congress  of  the  Confederacy, 
which  Stephens '  pronounced  as  able  and  conservative 
a  body  as  he  was  ever  associated  with,  had  proceeded 
to  pass  the  necessary  measures  not  only  for  civil  organ 
ization  but  also  for  military  preparation  in  the  face  of 
the  great  war  that  their  President  anticipated.  There 
has  long  been  much  dispute — what  have  they  not  dis 
puted  about  I — among  Confederate  writers  as  to  whether 
the  Executive  was  energetic  enough  in  pushing  these 
preparations.  One  fairly  moderate  example  may  be 
referred  to  among  the  published  articles — Mr.  Ehett,  in 
Battles  and  Leaders  of  the  Civil  War.*  Another,  not  in 
print,  has  come  to  my  notice  recently,  and  may  be 
cited  as  a  typical  illustration  of  the  freakish  injustice 
of  memory  and  gossip. 

Judge  D.  M.  Shelby,  of  the  United  States  Circuit 

'See  War  Between  the  States,  Vol.   II,  p.  325;  Johnston  and 
Browne,  pp.  392,  414. 
«Vol.  I,  p.  108. 


234  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

Court,  and  formerly  a  partner  of  Leroy  P.  Walker, 
first  Secretary  of  War  under  the  Confederacy,  relates * 
an  interesting  story  in  regard  to  the  views  of  the  cabi 
net  and  of  Mr.  Davis  before  the  outbreak  of  hostilities. 
Mr.  Walker  was  in  the  old  Exchange  Hotel,  at  Mont 
gomery,  one  day,  and  pointed  out  to  Judge  Shelby  the 
room  near  the  parlor  in  which  the  first  Confederate 
council  was  held,  indicating  even  the  relative  positions 
of  the  ministers  and  the  President.  "  At  that  time," 
said  Mr.  Walker,  "I,  like  everybody  else,  believed 
there  would  be  no  war.  In  fact,  I  had  gone  about 
the  state  advising  people  to  secede,  and  promising  to 
wipe  up  with  my  pocket-handkerchief  all  the  blood 
that  would  be  shed.  When  this  cabinet  meeting  was 
held,  there  was  only  one  man  there  who  had  any  sense, 
and  that  man  was  Benjamin.  Mr.  Benjamin  proposed 
that  the  government  purchase  as  much  cotton  as  it 
could  hold,  at  least  100,000  bales,  and  ship  it  at  once 
to  England.  With  the  proceeds  of  a  part  of  it  he 
advised  the  immediate  purchase  of  at  least  150,000 
stand  of  small  arms,  and  guns  and  munitions  in  corre 
sponding  amounts— I  forget  the  exact  figures.  The 
residue  of  the  cotton  was  to  be  held  as  a  basis  for 
credit.  For,  said  Benjamin,  we  are  entering  on  a  con 
test  that  must  be  long  and  costly.  All  the  rest  of  us 
fairly  ridiculed  the  idea  of  a  serious  war.  Well,  you 
know  what  happened." 

Now  there  is  no  reason  to  question  that  Mr.  Walker 
was  honestly  relating  things  as  he  remembered  them  ; 
but  this  conversation  took  place  many  years  after  the 
events  to  which  it  referred.  As  a  consequence,  some  of 

1  Conversation  with  the  writer. 


ATTORNEY-GENERAL  235 

the  statements  are  undoubtedly  correct,  others  may  be 
correct,  and  some  are  almost  as  certainly  incorrect. 
There  is  no  question  about  the  "  pocket-handkerchief " 
speeches,  for  example,  of  which  Mr.  Walker  has  the 
courage  to  feel  a  little  ashamed.  There  is  every  proba 
bility  that  Benjamin,  whose  opinion  we  know  from 
other  sources,  and  who  was  perhaps  more  familiar 
than  the  rest  with  the  great  cotton  trade,  did  present 
some  such  scheme  as  that  suggested.  The  plan,  too, 
if  so  presented,  was  likely  elaborated  with  all  of 
that  skill  at  discounting  the  future  that  had  enabled 
Benjamin  to  build  enchanting  air  castles  out  of 
Tehuantepec.  It  is  improbable  that  a  course  of  action 
so  highly  desirable  and  prudent  was  rejected  by  all  of 
the  men  present  at  that  meeting  for  the  reason  sug 
gested  by  Mr.  Walker.  They  rejected  it,  no  doubt, 
but  for  other  and  sufficient  reasons,  as  I  think,  and 
probably  not  without  regret.  Mr.  Davis,  like  Ben 
jamin,  felt  certain  that  there  would  be  war ;  and 
though  he,  as  well  as  everybody  else  on  both  sides, 
failed  to  conceive  of  the  magnitude  and  desperation 
of  the  contest,  he  had  the  professional  soldier's  instinct 
to  lead  him  to  desire  as  much  as  he  could  get  in  the 
way  of  military  equipment.  He  would  not  have  re 
jected  Benjamin's  suggestion  if  it  had  been  practicable. 
We  can  only  guess,  of  course,  at  the  reason  for  the 
failure  to  act  out  some  such  policy  on  the  part  of  the 
Confederate  government ;  but  it  seems  to  me  decidedly 
unfair  to  make  a  guess  that  exalts  Benjamin  at  the 
expense  of  others,  his  associates,  in  a  way  that  he 
would  never  have  approved.  The  reasonable  and  suf 
ficient  ground  for  the  rejection  of  this  plan,  if  such  a 
plan  was  proposed  by  Benjamin,  is  given  by  Captain 


236  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

Bulloch.1  The  South  had  no  shipping  of  her  own ;  as 
soon  as  hostilities  became  imminent,  neutral  traders 
and  those  from  Northern  ports  made  haste  to  load 
and  get  away  from  Southern  ports,  lest  they  be  seized. 
For  two  months  prior  to  the  firing  on  Sumter,  accord 
ing  to  Captain  Bulloch' s  narrative,  it  would  have  been 
barely  possible  to  get  together  enough  vessels  to  carry 
out  any  considerable  quantity  of  cotton  on  govern 
ment  account ;  and  after  that  fatal  shot,  the  vessels  in 
Confederate  harbors  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  au 
thorities  were  but  a  handful. 

In  an  agricultural  nation  undertaking  a  great  war 
under  modern  conditions,  innumerable  things,  and 
immense  quantities  of  them,  had  to  be  provided. 
Considering  the  energy  and  the  pertinacity  with  which 
they  carried  on  the  government  and  the  war  after 
ward,  it  would  require  overwhelming  proofs  to  con 
vince  us  that  the  Confederate  authorities  did  not  make 
every  effort  they  knew  how  to  have  the  South  in  readi 
ness  in  the  interval  before  Fort  Sumter  fell.  When 
that  event  came,  perhaps  by  a  hasty  action  for  which 
the  cabinet  was  not  to  blame,2  they  were  not  fully  pre 
pared  ;  yet  the  wonder  is  not  that  they  had  accom 
plished  so  little,  but  so  very  much,  in  the  way  of 
preparation.  And  they  acted  with  promptness  so 
soon  as  the  first  blow  was  struck.  For  reasons  stated 
by  Mr.  Davis  in  his  book,  and  which  seem  valid 
enough,  the  Confederate  government  hastened  to  move 
to  Richmond  as  soon  as  Virginia  seceded.  On  the 
way  there  the  President,  Mr.  Benjamin,  and  other 
members  of  the  government  addressed  the  people  in 

1  Secret  Service  of  the  Confederacy,  Vol.  I,  p.  20,  et  sea. 
8  See  Rhodes,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  351. 


ATTOBNEY-GENEKAL  237 

speeches  of  optimistic  tone,  according  to  the  meagre 
press  dispatches  of  the  day,  promising  vigorous  action 
u  to  expel  the  invader  from  our  soil.7' 

During  the  weeks  of  feverish  mustering  of  troops 
that  followed,  Benjamin  had  little  to  do;  his  legal 
opinion  was  sometimes  called  for  on  the  constitution 
ality  of  acts  of  the  executive  departments.  But  in 
the  stress  of  war  it  soon  became  manifest  that  nice 
ties  of  legal  discrimination  must  be  swept  aside. 
Whether  the  proposed  act  were  quite  regular  or  not,  it 
must  be  performed  ;  there  must  be  no  delay.  In 
this  interval  when  the  lawyer  found  little  need  for  his 
services,  the  other  qualities  of  the  man  were  revealed 
to  Mr.  Davis.  The  ever -watchful  Jones  noticed  very 
soon  that  Benjamin  was  particularly  in  the  President's 
good  graces.  Thus  when  the  anxious  group  of  high 
officials  waited  about  the  War  Department  telegraph 
office  on  the  night  of  July  21st,  he  reports1  that  it 
is  Mr.  Benjamin  who  goes  to  Mrs.  Davis  at  the  Spotts- 
wood  Hotel  and  returns  with  a  soul-gladdening  mes 
sage  from  her  husband  on  the  battle-field  of  the  first 
Manassas.  It  is  Benjamin,  too,  who  repeats  the  in 
spiring  news  to  the  reporters  from  memory,  while 
his  "  face  glowed  something  like  Daniel  Webster's 
after  taking  a  pint  of  brandy."  It  is  he,  too,  who 
brings  a  special  verbal  message  from  the  President  to 
the  Secretary  of  War  about  two  Northern  gentlemen 
who  had  come  within  the  Confederate  lines  at  Manas 
sas  to  look  for  the  body  of  Colonel  Cameron,  and  not 
under  a  flag  of  truce  lest  this  should  be  construed  into 
a  recognition  of  the  l  i  rebels. ' 7  And  then  (August  10), 
"Mr.  Benjamin  is  a  frequent  visitor  at  the  depart- 

»Vol.  I,  pp.  64,  68,  71. 


238  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

ment,  and  is  very  sociable  ;  some  intimations  have  been 
thrown  out  that  he  aspires  to  become,  some  day,  Sec 
retary  of  War.  Mr.  Benjamin,  unquestionably,  will 
have  great  influence  with  the  President,  for  he  has 
studied  his  character  most  carefully.  He  will  be  fa 
miliar  not  only  with  his  likes,  but  especially  with  his 
'  dislikes.'  " 

With  due  allowance  for  this  observer's  anti-Semitic 
squint,  and  consequent  suspicion  of  Benjamin,  I  should 
fancy  there  was  truth  in  his  suggestion  that  the  lat 
ter  had  made  a  study  of  the  President's  character, 
and  exerted  himself  to  win  favor.  Whatever  may  be 
said  of  Jefferson  Davis' s  abilities,  statesmanship,  de 
votion  to  public  duty,  and  wealth  of  private  virtues, 
he  possessed  some  traits  which  were  the  very  manifes 
tation  of  the  sincerity  and  honesty  of  the  man,  but 
which  brought  upon  him  much  superficial  and  unde 
served  censure.  Take  him  all  in  all,  it  is  extremely 
doubtful  if  the  Confederacy  could  have  found  a  leader 
more  suitably  endowed  for  the  military  dictatorship  to 
which  its  government  must  tend.  The  necessities  of 
the  situation  constrained  Davis  to  be  autocratic,1  just 
as  similar  conditions  constrained  Lincoln  to  be  simi 
larly  autocratic.  It  was  essential  that  colleagues  in  the 
government  and  officers  in  the  army,  should  be  abso 
lutely  subordinate  and  obedient  to  the  Executive. 

Again  a  little  reflection  will  plainly  show  that  of 
both  sides  this  is  equally  true ;  and  it  is  not  difficult 
to  parallel  Joseph  E.  Johnston  with  McClellan,  or  Lee 
with  Grant,  to  show  that,  with  the  first  pair,  the  prime 
cause  of  trouble  was  disagreement  with  the  Executive, 
while  with  the  second  the  secret  of  success  was  being 

1  But  see  below,  Chapter  XIII. 


ATTORNEY  GENERAL  239 

in  harmony.  Of  course,  such  a  parallel  is  misleading 
if  blindly  followed ;  we  do  not  mean  to  compare  the 
men  named  in  any  way  but  with  regard  to  their  rela 
tions  with  the  Presidents.  Not  only  did  Mr.  Davis 
find  it  necessary,  therefore,  to  rule  with  vigor  or  not 
rule  at  all,  but  his  military  education  and  predilec 
tions  made  the  habit  of  command  second  nature.  He 
was  really  of  most  kind  disposition,  but  extremely  re 
served  and  severe  of  manner.  I  think  the  unprejudiced 
historian  must  pronounce  Mr.  Davis  superior  to  any 
member  of  his  cabinet  in  the  essential  qualities  needed 
for  his  difficult  position ;  but  some  of  them  did  not 
think  thus,  and  resented  firm  control,  which  was  in 
dispensable,  as  capricious  and  even  haughty  dictation. 
But  a  few  weeks  of  the  intimate  and  difficult  rela 
tions  of  the  cabinet  officers  to  the  President  were 
needed  to  develop  this  opinion  in  recalcitrant  or  in 
subordinate  members  of  the  new  government.  It  was 
natural,  therefore,  that  Benjamin's  urbanity,  and  his 
thorough  realization  of  the  proper  relations  of  a  cabinet 
officer  to  his  chief,  should  have  won  Mr.  Davis' s  grati 
tude  and  favor,  while  his  unusual  abilities  soon  like 
wise  gained  the  confidence  of  the  President.  Bound 
up,  heart  and  soul,  in  what  people  reverently  called 
"  the  cause,"  Mr.  Benjamin  was  quite  willing  to  serve 
loyally  in  any  sort  of  capacity ;  willing  to  defer 
to  the  opinion  of  his  leader  for  the  good  of  that  cause. 
He  did  not  always  agree  with  Mr.  Davis ;  but  when 
his  opinion  was  overruled,  he  neither  lost  his  temper 
and  resigned  his  post,  nor  nursed  injured  pride  in 
sulky  and  reluctant  obedience.  His  advice  was  shrewd 
and  prudent,  urged  with  cogency  of  reasoning  and 
tact.  He  was  always  cheerful,  generally  sanguine, 


240  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

capable  of  ail  amazing  amount  of  hard  work,  method 
ical  and  prompt.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  there 
fore,  that  Mr.  Davis  found  him  a  most  useful  member 
of  the  official  family,  and  thought  him  fitted  for  almost 
any  post  in  it. 

The  battle  of  Bull  Bun  by  itself  was  sufficient  to 
demonstrate  that  there  would  be  more  blood  shed  than 
many  handkerchiefs  could  wipe  up.  Secretary  Walker 
found  himself  unequal  to  the  strain  imposed  by  his 
duties, — overwhelmed  by  the  mass  of  unfamiliar  de 
tail,  and  restive  under  the  inevitable  complaints  and 
the  bickering  of  officers.  Early  in  the  fall  there 
began  to  be  rumors  that  he  would  retire,  and  that 
Benjamin  would  succeed  him.  And  on  September 
17th,  Walker  having  resigned,  Benjamin  was  officially 
appointed  Secretary  of  War,  ad  interim,  acting  also  as 
Attorney-General  until  November  15th.1 

Jones,  now  to  have  close  relations  with  the  new 
secretary,  remarks  on  September  16th  : a  "  Mr.  Benja 
min's  hitherto  perennial  smile  faded  almost  away  as 
he  realized  the  fact  that  he  was  now  the  most  impor 
tant  member  of  the  cabinet.  He  well  knew  how  ardu 
ous  the  duties  were  ;  but  then  he  was  in  robust  health, 
and  capable  of  any  amount  of  labor."  And  he  adds  : 
"  It  seems,  after  all,  that  Mr.  Benjamin  is  only  acting 
Secretary  of  War,  until  the  President  can  fix  upon  an 
other.  Can  that  be  the  reason  his  smile  has  faded 
almost  away?  But  the  President  will  appoint  him. 
Mr.  Benjamin  will  please  him ;  he  knows  how  to  do 
it."  And  the  New  Orleans  Delta*  though  also  rather 

1  Official  Records,  Series  IV,  Vol.  I,  pp.  614,  957. 
8  Vol  I,  p.  79. 
8  Sept.  28. 


ATTOBNEY-GENEBAL  241 

prejudiced  against  Mr.  Benjamin,  had  a  letter  from 
its  correspondent  at  Bichmond  a  week  later,  saying : 
"The  good  effects  of  his  presence  in  the  War  Depart 
ment  are  already  exhibited  in  his  administration  as 
compared  with  that  of  his  predecessor.  The  duties  of 
the  War  Department  are,  of  course,  excessively  ardu 
ous  and  unremittant ;'  but  Mr.  Benjamin  manages  to 
fulfil  them  all  without  exciting  complaints  of  delay. 
.  .  .  He  determines  every  question  submitted  to  him 
with  the  promptness  and  the  accuracy  characteristic 
of  his  mind,  while  at  the  same  time  he  exhibits  ad 
ministrative  capacity  of  a  high  order  and  great  organ 
izing  talents.'7 

There  can  be  no  question  of  Benjamin's  tireless  in 
dustry,  or  of  the  good  results  to  be  anticipated  from 
habits  of  precision  and  systematic  care  in  the  war 
office.  Probably  at  no  time  during  his  life,  with  the 
possible  exception  of  the  first  years  of  trial  in  New 
Orleans,  had  he  worked  so  hard.  Various  accounts 
are  given  of  the  hours  he  kept  at  his  desk  ;  one  would 
fancy  that  he  toiled  from  early  morn  till  midnight,  day 
in  and  day  out,  with  not  even  time  for  meals  ;  but  the 
fact  is  that  Benjamin  was  far  too  sensible  to  waste  his 
energies,  and  the  amount  of  work  he  managed  to  per 
form  is  far  more  to  the  point  than  the  time  he  took  to 
do  it.  Under  his  supervision  the  department  was 
thoroughly  organized  for  efficient  service  at  headquar 
ters.  The  immense  masses  of  correspondence,  which 
had  formerly  been  allowed  to  accumulate  till  confusion 
and  despair  reigned,  were  disposed  of  on  the  day  of 
their  receipt,  if  that  were  humanly  possible.  Long  let 
ters,  that  consumed  the  time  of  the  secretary  in  the 
writing  and  of  his  clerks  in  the  copying,  were  eschewed ; 


242  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

if  such  replies  could  not  be  avoided,  and  the  matters 
were  important,  telegraphic  answers  at  least  were  sent 
at  once.  Now  every  one  was  assigned  his  duty,  and  the 
secretary  expected  him  to  perform  that  duty,  By 
these  simple  means  he  managed  to  save  himself  fruit 
less  drudgery,  while  leaving  more  time  for  the  multi 
farious  larger  problems  that  might  and  must  quite 
properly  engage  the  attention  of  a  minister.  But  he 
saw  to  it  that  every  letter  or  communication,  no  mat 
ter  how  silly,  received  some  sort  of  answer.  Thus,  to 
a  foolish  attorney  for  certain  "bold  and  daring  spirits 
on  our  western  border,"  who  inquired  concerning  the 
legal  possibilities  of  getting  letters  of  marque  to  prey 
upon  the  enemy's  commerce  on  the  Ohio  Eiver,  the 
secretary  replied  : 1  "  In  regard  to  the  project  of  Mr. 
Crawford  and  other  'bold  and  daring  spirits/  I  can 
only  say  that  privateering  is  of  necessity,  by  the  laws 
of  Congress  as  well  as  of  nations,  confined  to  the  high 
seas,  and  this  service  is,  moreover,  not  under  the  charge 
of  this  department." 

The  routine  work  of  the  War  Department,  however, 
is  not  of  sufficient  interest  or  importance  to  tempt  us 
into  extended  notice  of  it.  Moreover,  the  President 
devoted  much  of  his  time  and  attention  to  the  larger 
problems  of  strategy,  so  that  these,  which  might  repay 
study,  concern  the  biographer  of  Mr.  Benjamin  very 
little.  Neither  will  it  suit  us  to  chronicle  the  still  un 
settled  disputes  that  arose  between  the  government  and 
its  generals  in  the  field  ;  or  rather,  we  must  chronicle, 

1  Official  Records,  Series  IV,  Vol.  I,  p.  669.  Cf.  p.  1008,  for  re 
fusal  to  organize  guerrilla  companies,  which  "  are  not  recognized  as 
part  of  the  military  organization  of  the  Confederate  States,  and 
cannot  be  authorized  by  this  department." 


ATTOENEY-GENEEAL  243 

but  not  discuss  them.  With  Beauregard,  and  especially 
with  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  Mr.  Davis  had  quarrels,  in 
which  there  was  some  right  on  each  side,  and  which 
each  side  has  fought  out  in  print  in  a  fashion  that 
quite  relieves  us  of  that  unpleasant  task.  Suffice  it  to 
say  that  Benjamin  supported  Mr.  Davis.  But  one  of 
these  disputes  with  officers  of  the  army,  since  it  con 
cerns  a  general  of  such  insignificance  that  we  may  fear 
lessly  suppress  his  name,  will  serve  to  illustrate  both 
the  difficulty  of  dealing  with  these  absurdly  sensitive 
gentlemen,  and  one  of  Benjamin's  faults  as  Secretary 
of  War. 

This  incident  brings  out  the  insolent  wrath  of  a  jeal 
ous  brigadier-general,  who  had  expected  to  be  made 
a  major-general,  and  who  resigned  in  a  huff  when 
he  failed  of  this.  He  wrote1  at  some  length  to  the 
Secretary  of  War,  paying  a  glowing  tribute  to  himself, 
and  stating  that  although  he  had  been  for  months  at 
the  front,  almost  every  mail  brought  news  of  his  being 
overslaughed  by  some  officer  whom  he  "  ranked  in  the 
old  service"  of  the  United  States  ;  that  the  last  straw 
had  come  in  the  appointment  as  major-general  of  "a 
New  York  office-holder,"  and  that  he  would  "not  con 
descend  to  submit  any  longer  to  the  insults  and  indig 
nities  of  the  Executive."  To  this  Benjamin  replied 
with  j  ustice,  but  without  tact :  "  It  is  due  to  self- 
respect  that  I  should  remark  on  the  impropriety  of 
your  using  this  department  as  a  channel  for  conveying 
disrespectful  and  insulting  comments  on  the  com- 
mander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  the  chief  magistrate 
of  the  Confederacy.  His  sole  offense,  according  to 
the  statements  of  your  letter,  consists  in  not  selecting 

1  Correspondence  in  the  papers,  as  True  Delta,  Nov.  1  and  6. 


244  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

you  to  be  a  major-general,  for  there  is  no  question 
of  promotion  involved  in  the  appointment  of  major- 
generals.  The  law  expressly  vests  in  him  the  power 
to  choose  officers  to  command  brigades  and  divisions, 
and  it  is  no  disparagement  to  any  officer,  whatever 
may  have  been  his  services,  that  the  President  prefers 
another  as  a  division  commander.  "Your  statement, 
therefore,  that  you  have  been  overslaughed,  and  that 
you  have  been  subjected  'to  the  insults  and  indig 
nities  '  of  the  Executive,  is  based  on  a  total  misappre 
hension  of  his  duties  and  your  rights,  according  to  the 
laws  which  govern  the  army.  Your  communication 
has  been  submitted  to  the  President,  and,  by  his  direc 
tion,  your  resignation  has  been  accepted." 

Of  this  officer's  merit  and  capacities  we  know,  and 
care  very  little ;  the  one  preferred  to  him  did  not, 
indeed,  prove  himself  very  deserving.  But  Benjamin's 
reply  was  ill-advised.  Its  tone  is  very  severe,  how 
ever  justly  so.  And  it  gave  the  indignant  officer  a 
chance  to  write  another  letter,  which  he  did.  One  is 
reminded  of  Mrs.  Da  vis's  comment  on  the  secretary  :  * 
"Each  time  that  he  had  an  angry  contest  with  any  of 
his  colleagues,  some  one  was  sure  to  say :  i  How  can 
any  one  get  provoked  with  Mr.  Benjamin?  he  is  so 
gentle  and  courteous.'  In  fact  the  truth  was  that 
Mr.  Benjamin's  courtesy  in  argument  was  like  the 
salute  of  the  duelist  to  his  antagonist  whom  he  in 
tends  to  kill  if  possible.  He  was  master  of  the  art  of 
inductive  reasoning,  and  when  he  had  smilingly  estab 
lished  his  point  he  dealt  the  coup  de  grace  with  a  fierce 
joy  which  his  antagonist  fully  appreciated  and  re 
sented.  I  never  knew  him  in  those  days  to  be  very 

1  Letter  in  Lawley  MS.t  June  8,  1898. 


ATTOBNEY-GENEBAL  245 

much  in  earnest  without  infuriating  his  antagonist 
beyond  measure.  Mr.  Slidell,  who  loved  him  like  a 
brother,  once  said  to  Mr.  Davis,  *  When  I  do  not  agree 
with  Benjamin,  I  will  not  let  him  talk  to  me  j  he  irri 
tates  me  so  by  his  debonair  ways.'  "  He  did  not 
forget  or  lay  aside  the  training  and  habits  of  the  bar 
and  the  Senate  when  acting  as  Secretary  of  War,  and 
could  not  forego  the  delightful  chance  to  make  re 
marks  that,  however  just  and  convincing,  were  sarcastic 
and  often  exasperating.  Much  of  this  comment  has 
not  been  preserved  save  in  the  gossip  of  the  time,  and 
therefore  we  may  not  record  it  as  of  reliable  authority  ; 
but  it  seems  to  me  that  there  is  a  touch  of  contemptu 
ous  sarcasm  even  in  a  reply  which  he  submitted  to  a 
resolution  of  Congress  asking  what  means  were  needed 
for  the  prosecution  of  the  war.  We  need,  he  says,1 
350,000  additional  men,  500,000  rifles,  over  1,000  pieces 
of  field  artillery,  2,000  tons  of  powder,  and  $200,- 
000,000;  and  since  all  these  things  are  beyond  our 
reach,  he  presumes  Congress  wants  to  know  what  is 
practicable  :  "  If  I  am  right  in  this  conclusion,  then  I 
respectfully  answer  that  the  great  deficiency  under 
which  we  suffer  is  the  want  of  small  arms  and  powder. 
.  .  .  In  a  word,  what  we  need  is  the  '  material '  of 
war.77 

Always  indifferent  to  the  clamors  of  the  press,  and 
now  feeling  perfectly  secure  in  the  support  of  the  Presi 
dent,  Benjamin  doubtless  made  himself  even  more  un 
popular  than  his  necessarily  unpopular  duties  required. 
Jones,  scenting  disaster  to  the  Confederate  arms,  de 
clares  in  January,  1862, 2  "  There  is  no  entente  cordiale 


1  Official  Records,  Series  IV,  Vol.  I,  p.  970. 
'Vol.  I,  p.  103. 


246  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

between  Mr.  Benjamin  and  any  of  our  best  generals." 
With  such  a  feeling  abroad  against  him,  whether  justi 
fied  or  not,  his  usefulness  in  his  present  position  would 
be  at  an  end  unless  some  signal  victory  in  the  field 
should  restore  public  confidence.  But  the  reports  of 
the  Secretary  of  War  showed  conditions  to  be  any 
thing  but  reassuring.  With  scarcely  enough  inferior 
and  antiquated  muskets  on  hand  to  fit  out  an  additional 
regiment,  he  is  badgered  by  state  governors  and  officers 
of  the  army  to  supply  arms.  What  a  sigh  of  relief  when 
the  precious  cargo  of  the  Gladiator,*  containing  a  few 
thousand  stand  of  arms,  is  safely  brought  through  the 
blockade,  having  been  reshipped  at  Nassau  on  several 
smaller  and  swifter  vessels  that  might  outrun  the 
active  Yankee  gunboats.  For  nearly  three  months, 
Benjamin  says,  we  have  been  waiting  for  these  Enfield 
rifles,  have  promised  them  to  eager  soldiers,  and  could 
make  use  of  several  hundred  thousand  more.  We 
vigorously  set  about  manufacturing  muskets,  guns, 
powder,  and  with  some  success,  considering  the  dearth 
of  mechanics  and  of  necessary  materials.  We  appoint, 
on  the  secretary's  recommendation,  special  officers  to 
investigate  the  supplies  of  nitre  and  saltpetre  in  the 
Confederacy ;  to  suggest  means  of  supplementing  and 
improving  them.  But  we  must  already,  before  the 
first  half-year  of  the  blockade  is  over,  offer  blockade- 
runners  a  profit  of  fifty  per  centum  over  the  cost  of 
the  articles  specially  named,  with  reimbursement  of 
all  charges  for  "  freight,  drayage,  package,  and  cost 
of  loading  at  the  port  of  departure.  .  .  .  For 
freight  you  will  be  allowed  twice  the  current  rates  of 
freight  from  the  port  of  loading  to  the  port  of  Havana. 

1  Official  Records,  Series  IV,  Vol.  I,  pp.  800,  985,  etc. 


ATTOKNEY-GENEBAL  247 

.  .  .  Payment  to  be  made  to  you  on  arrival  and 
delivery  of  cargo  in  a  Confederate  port  in  good  order, 
.  in  cotton  at  current  market  prices."  And  in 
the  list  of  articles  for  which  these  extraordinary  sums 
will  be  paid,  one  finds  not  only  arms  and  munitions  of 
various  kinds  but  such  things  as  bar  steel,  nitric  acid, 
sulphuric  acid,  and  even  i  i  leather  suitable  for  harness 
and  bridles."  One  heartily  sympathizes  with  the  diffi 
culties  and  the  perplexities  of  the  Secretary  of  War  : 

11  When  it  is  considered  that  the  government  of  the 
United  States — with  all  its  accumulation  of  arms  for 
half  a  century,  and  all  its  workshops  and  arsenals, 
public  and  private,  and  its  untrammeled  intercourse 
with  foreign  nations — has  recently  been  compelled  to 
disband  a  number  of  cavalry  regiments  on  account  of 
the  difficulty  of  arming  them,  and  has  been  driven  to 
the  necessity  of  making  purchases  of  arms  in  Europe 
in  very  large  quantities,  and  of  saltpetre  by  thousands 
of  tons,  some  faint  idea  may  be  formed  of  the  diffi 
culties  against  which  this  department  has  been  and  is 
now  struggling  in  the  effort  to  furnish  arms  and  muni 
tions  for  our  troops.  The  difficulty  is  not  in  the  want 
of  legislation.  Laws  cannot  suddenly  convert  farmers 
into  gunsmiths.  Our  people  are  not  artisans,  except 
to  a  very  limited  degree.  In  the  very  armory  here  at 
Eichmond  the  production  could  be  greatly  increased 
if  skilled  labor  could  be  procured.  In  the  absence  of 
home  manufactures  no  recourse  remains  but  importa 
tion,  and  with  our  commerce  substantially  at  an  end 
with  foreign  nations  the  means  of  importation  are 
limited."  ' 

Meanwhile  the  winter  was  passing  away  with  noth- 

1  Official  Records,  Series  IV,  Vol.  1,  pp.  760,  768,  790-797,  820, 
955-962,  970,  988,  et  seq. 


248  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

ing  but  the  most  blessed  inactivity,  for  the  most  part, 
on  the  Federal  side.  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  with  in 
ferior  forces  and  "  Quaker"  guns,  made  of  logs,  man 
aged  to  keep  a  menacing  front  at  Manassas.  McClellau 
accumulated  and  drilled  the  largest  fighting  machine 
the  world  had  seen  since  the  Crusades,  but  it  was  so 
huge  that  he  feared  to  use  it.  Meanwhile,  too,  the 
Secretary  of  War  for  the  Confederacy,  straining  every 
nerve  to  protect  the  long  frontier  and  the  three 
thousand  miles  of  coast  with  half  a  hundred  points 
subject  to  attack,  was  pestered  with  trifling  things. 
Thus  there  was  endless  trouble  about  granting  pass 
ports  to  those  desiring  to  go  within  the  Federal  lines. 
At  first  Benjamin,  following  his  inclination,  was 
liberal  in  showing  this  courtesy  to  "alien  enemies." 
But  there  were  grave  political  as  well  as  military 
dangers  in  such  a  policy.  A  considerable  section  of 
the  more  rabid,  of  whom  Jones1  will  serve  as  an 
example,  cried  out  against  the  criminal  folly  of  allow 
ing  these  men  to  carry  over  to  the  foe  their  wealth, 
"  the  sinews  of  war."  And  it  was  asserted  that  many 
spies  were  allowed  passports,  only  to  give  information 
to  the  enemy.  The  North  had  proclaimed  that 
only  two  parties  were  there  as  long  as  war  continued, 
"patriots  and  traitors."  Many  in  the  South  felt  the 
same  way.  But  while  opinion  sustained  the  Federal 
Congress  in  expelling  the  demagogue  Vallandighain, 
who  furnished  a  text  for  patriotic  preachment  even  in 
fiction,  there  was  less  unanimity  in  the  South  when 
the  demagogue  Brownlow  was  expelled  from  Tennessee, 
to  become  a  martyr  in  the  North. 

His  case  may  be  summarized  as  a  fair  instance  of  the 
1  See  e.  g.t  Vol.  I,  pp.  80,  89,  93,  97,  102,  105,  etc. 


ATTOENEY-GENEEAL  249 

leniency  with  which  Benjamin  was  disposed  to  act. 
Being  a  preacher,  Brownlow  was  debarred  the  mode  of 
expression  that  would  have  best  suited  his  taste ;  in 
lieu  of  profanity,  he  was  driven  to  such  circumlocutions 
as  "that  heaven-offending,  hell -deserving  secessionist, 
W.  L.  Yancey,"  his  usual  manner  of  referring  to  the 
Alabamian.  In  language  similarly  choice,  he  had  ex 
pressed  his  opinions  of  the  Confederacy  and  its  leaders 
in  his  paper,  the  Knoxville  Whig,  until  the  Confederate 
forces  entering  Tennessee  drove  him  to  flight  and  con 
cealment  in  the  mountains.  From  his  place  of  hiding 
he  sent  word  to  General  Crittenden  that  he  would 
surrender  and  return  to  Knoxville  to  stand  trial 
before  the  civil  authorities  for  treasonable  utterances, 
if  assured  of  protection  against  arrest  by  the  military 
and  court  martial.  General  Crittenden  accepted  this 
proposition,  and,  under  instructions  from  Eichmond, 
further  assured  Brownlow  that  he  would  not  be  pros 
ecuted,  but  would  be  simply  expelled  from  the  state. 
Benjamin  was  at  the  time  acting  both  as  minister  of 
justice  and  as  minister  of  war,  and  had  been  assured 
by  the  local  prosecuting  officers  that  they  would  be 
content  to  expel  Brownlow. 

But  when  he  ventured  to  return,  in  the  bitter 
ness  of  factional  feeling  in  east  Tennessee  there  was 
immediate  demand  for  his  prosecution,  the  pledge  of 
General  Crittenden  was  violated,  and  the  vituperative 
editor  was  at  once  cast  into  prison.  The  time  for  his 
trial  coming  on,  the  district  attorney  produced  a  letter 
from  Benjamin,  as  Secretary  of  War  (December  22, 
1861),  explaining  the  circumstances,  and  adding  that  he 
regretted  the  preacher's  arrest,  since  "color  is  given 
to  the  suspicion  that  Brownlow  has  been  entrapped. 


250  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

.  .  .  General  Crittenden  feels  sensitive  on  this 
point,  and  I  share  his  feeling.  Better  that  any,  the 
most  dangerous  enemy,  however  criminal,  should 
escape,  than  that  the  honor  and  good  faith  of  the 
government  should  be  impugned  or  even  suspected. 
General  Crittenden  gave  his  word  only  that  Brownlow 
should  not  be  tried  by  the  court  martial,  and  I  gave 
authority  to  promise  him  protection,  if  he  would  sur 
render,  to  be  conveyed  across  the  border.  We  have 
both  kept  our  words  as  far  as  was  in  our  power,  but 
every  one  must  see  that  Brownlow  would  now  be  safe, 
and  at  large,  if  he  had  not  supposed  that  his  reliance 
on  the  promises  made  him  would  insure  his  safe  de 
parture  from  east  Tennessee.  Under  all  the  circum 
stances,  therefore,  if  Brownlow  is  exposed  to  harm 
from  his  arrest,  I  shall  deem  the  honor  of  the  govern 
ment  so  far  compromitted  as  to  consider  it  my  duty  to 
urge  on  the  President  a  pardon  for  any  offense  of 
which  he  may  be  found  guilty  j  and  I  repeat  the  ex 
pression  of  my  regret  that  he  was  prosecuted,  however 
evident  his  guilt." 

Browulow's  very  inflammatory  editorials,  urging 
the  destruction  of  railway  bridges  and  the  burning 
of  the  houses  of  Southern  sympathizers,  had  made 
the  Confederates  of  the  region  very  bitter  against 
him ;  but  in  view  of  this  letter  the  prosecution  was 
dropped,  and  he  went  on  his  way,  still  vindictive  and 
defiant.  In  a  public  address  some  months  later  he 
gave  a  graphic  account  of  his  experiences,  and  we 
must  add  another  sample  of  his  writing.  He  had 
been  visited  in  jail  by  some  Confederate  officers  who 
suggested  that  he  take  the  oath  to  their  government. 
"  Before  I  would  take  the  oath  to  support  such  a  hell- 


ATTOENEY-GENEEAL  251 

forsaken  institution,  I  would  suffer  myself  to  rot  or  die 
in  jail  of  old  age.  ...  A  short  time  since  I  was 
called  upon  by  a  little  Jew,  who,  I  believe,  is  the 
Secretary  of  War  of  the  bogus  Confederacy.  He  threat 
ened  to  hang  me,  and  I  expected  no  more  mercy  from 
him  than  was  shown  by  his  illustrious  predecessors 
toward  Jesus  Christ.  I  entered  into  a  long  corre 
spondence  with  this  specimen  of  expiring  humanity,  but 
from  mercy  or  forgetfulness  on  their  part,  I  was  per 
mitted  to  depart  with  all  my  documents  in  my  little 
valise,  which  I  hope  to  publish  at  no  distant  day."  * 

The  winter,  as  we  have  said,  had  almost  worn  itself 
away  without  any  effort  to  use  the  immense  armies  of 
the  North.  But  though  McClellan  would  lie  dormant 
on  the  Virginia  frontier,  there  were  other  danger  points 
for  the  Confederacy,  and  from  two  of  these  bad  news 
came  in  February  and  March.  Forts  Henry  and  Don- 
elson,  guarding  the  centre  of  the  long  Confederate  line, 
and  situated  respectively  on  the  Tennessee  and  Cum 
berland  Eivers  where  those  streams  were  but  eleven 
miles  apart,  were  of  vital  importance  to  the  successful 
operation  of  General  Albert  Sidney  Johnston's  plans 
in  Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  Early  in  February  Grant 
swooped  down  upon  Fort  Henry,  which  had  but  a 
small  garrison,  and  on  the  6th  telegraphed  to  Halleck  : 
"  Fort  Henry  is  ours.  ...  I  shall  take  and  destroy 
Fort  Donelson  on  the  8th."  The  boast,  unlike  the 
self-contained  Grant,  was  made  good,  but  not  quite  in 

1  Correspondence  in  Delta,  Jan.  3,  1862  ;  Brownlow's  speech, 
True  Delta,  April  6  ;  cf.  Nicolay  &  Hay's  Lincoln,  Vol.  V,  p.  80. 
For  Benjamin's  severe  retaliatory  order  against  the  Tennessee 
bridge  burners,  sharply  but  I  think  unjustly  criticised  in  view  of 
similar  policies  of  the  Union  commanders,  see  Coffin,  Marching  to 
Victory,  p.  377,  and  Official  Records,  Series  I,  Vol.  VII,  p.  701. 


252  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

the  time  he  had  allowed  himself.  Though  every  effort 
was  put  forth  by  General  Johnston  to  strengthen  the 
place,  and  though  he  received  all  the  assistance  the 
administration  could  give  him,  Fort  Donelson  surren 
dered  unconditionally  on  February  16th,  with  about 
12,000  men,  forty  pieces  of  artillery,  and  a  large 
amount  of  stores.  It  was  the  severest  blow  yet  dealt 
the  Confederates,  fatal  to  General  Johnston's  campaign, 
and  felt  as  a  deep  disgrace  on  account  of  the  conduct 
of  the  two  senior  officers  of  the  garrison,  who,  after 
bungling  a  perfectly  feasible  and  proper  plan  of  re 
treat,  had  slipped  away  and  cast  upon  General  Buck- 
ner  the  responsibility  of  surrender. 

The  wave  of  bad  news  from  the  West  was  met  by  a 
similar  wave  from  the  East,  and  the  two,  meeting  at 
Richmond,  qu  i te  submerged  the  Secretary  of  War.  The 
Confederates,  having  failed  in  the  effort  to  keep  the 
Federal  forces  outside  of  Hatteras,  had  hastily  fortified 
Eoauoke  Island,  commanding  the  passage  from  Pam- 
lico  to  Albemarle  Sound,  and  thus  protecting  not  only 
a  number  of  small  yet  useful  ports,  but  also  the  ap 
proach  to  Norfolk  from  the  rear.  General  Benjamin 
Huger,  with  about  fifteen  thousand  men  and,  it  was 
believed,  ample  supplies,  was  in  command  of  the  de 
partment  at  Norfolk.  To  General  Henry  A.  Wise  was 
entrusted  the  task  of  completing  the  poor  fortifications 
on  the  island  and  defending  it.  In  spite  of  urgent  ap 
peals  for  help,  however,  General  Wise  got  but  little 
from  the  war  office  or  from  General  Huger.  On  Feb 
ruary  8th  the  small  force  on  the  island  was  over 
whelmed,  and  most  of  it  captured.  The  loss  in  killed 
and  wounded  was  slight ;  but  a  touch  of  tragedy  that 
was  not  forgotten  was  the  death  of  the  gallant  young 


ATTORNEY-GENERAL  253 

Captain  O.  Jennings  Wise,  whose  life,  so  his  father 
and  many  others  thought,  had  been  a  mere  sacrifice  to 
the  incapacity  of  those  who  would  not  supply  means 
adequate  to  make  the  defense  of  the  island  anything 
but  a  farce.  The  loss  of  this  strategic  point,  too,  was 
more  severe  than  would  appear  from  the  number 
of  troops  killed.  In  its  consequences  it  was,  perhaps, 
more  irreparable  than  the  surrender  of  Donelson  and 
Henry ;  for  the  gradual  loss  of  seaports  was  already 
making  it  difficult  for  the  Confederacy  to  breathe,  and 
would  in  time  shut  off  the  breath  of  life  altogether. 

For  the  loss  of  the  Western  forts  the  government 
could  not  receive  all  of  the  blame  ;  this  was  shared  by 
General  A.  S.  Johnston,  against  whom  the  fickle  and 
ungrateful  press  and  the  demagogues  railed  atrociously, 
saddening  the  short  life  of  one  of  the  most  able  and 
chivalrous  officers  the  South  produced.  But  the  Presi 
dent  and  the  Secretary  of  War  came  in  for  their  part 
of  this  undesirable  popular  attention  when  they  reso 
lutely  sustained  General  Johnston.  In  the  case  of 
Roanoke  Island  it  was  clear  that  General  Wise  was 
not  at  fault.  Some  other  victim  must  be  found,  and 
his  rather  intemperate  talk,  coupled  with  his  official 
report  of  the  loss,  pointed  to  General  Huger  and  Mr. 
Benjamin.  General  Wise  was  something  of  a  popular 
idol ;  it  was  he  of  whom  the  current  doggerel  ran  : 

1 '  Old  John  Brown,  down  in  Harper's  Ferry  section, 
Went  about  his  ways  to  raise  an  insurrection, 
And  thought  that  the  niggers  would  sustain  'im  : 
But  Old  Governor  Wise,  put  his  specs  upon  his  eyes, 
And  sent  him  to  the  happy  land  o'  Canaan." 

When  he  charged,   therefore,   that  neither  General 


254  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

Huger  nor  the  Secretary  of  War  had  paid  any  attention 
to  his  requisitions  for  men  and  materials  and  ammuni 
tion  5  that  they  had  rejected  with  contempt  his  recom 
mendations,  and  with  insolence  his  assurances  that 
Eoanoke  Island  and  no  other  point  was  the  destina 
tion  of  the  Federal  expedition  known  to  have  sailed  ; 
and  that  the  brave  men  who  had  fallen — and  people 
remembered  that  one  of  them  was  his  own  son — had 
been  shamefully  sacrificed  to  incompetence  or  indif 
ference  in  high  places,  all  the  suppressed  fury  of  press 
and  politicians  was  turned  loose  upon  Mr.  Benjamin 
and  General  Huger.  Against  the  former,  especially, 
was  their  wrath  directed,  as  they  diligently  searched 
through  every  page  of  his  record  to  discover  grounds 
for  the  present  indictment.  A  fair  sample  of  the  edi 
torial  assaults  upon  Benjamin  may  be  given  from  one 
of  the  milder  papers,  to  show  the  trend  of  popular 
opinion.  The  Eichmond  Examiner  '  declared  that  the 
War  Department  had  been  completely  taken  by  surprise 
in  the  case  of  all  recent  disasters  : 

"So  curious  [is]  the  ignorance  and  complacency  of 
our  government  in  this  matter,  that  we  are  advised 
that,  though  the  defense  of  Eoauoke  Island  was  urged 
upon  the  Secretary  of  War  for  weeks  before  the  demon 
stration  of  the  enemy  was  made,  Mr.  Benjamin  in 
sisted  strenuously  and  to  the  last  moment  that  Eoanoke 
Island  was  positively  not  an  object  of  the  enemy's 
attack,  but  that  a  great  battle  was  to  come  off  at  Pen- 
sacola,  for  which  he  was  busy  in  preparation,  sending 
to  the  gulf  coast  all  the  shot,  shell,  and  ammunition 
that  could  be  gathered.  .  .  .  With  equal  disre 
gard  and  the  same  stupid  complacency  was  treated  the 

1  Quoted  in  True  Delta,  March  7. 


ATTOBNEY-GENEKAL  255 

protest  of  General  Wise,  made  directly  to  the  govern 
ment  at  the  time  of  his  taking  command  of  Eoanoke 
Island.  These  are  strange  facts ;  but  they  are  true.  It 
is  possible  that  the  persistent  delusion  of  Mr.  Benjamin 
as  to  the  designs  of  the  enemy  on  the  coast  may  be 
accounted  for  on  the  supposition  that  his  mind  was 
abused  by  the  duplicity  of  the  spies  he  employs.  It  is 
notorious  that  the  easy  credulity  of  the  secretary  has 
more  than  once  been  imposed  upon  by  double-dealing 
spies  and  covert  agents  of  the  Lincoln  government. 
.  .  .  We  are  surprised  by  each  movement  of  the 
enemy  ;  the  War  Department  seems  to  know  no  more 
of  his  plans  and  intentions  than  the  children  in  the 
streets  of  Eichmond  ;  the  credulity  of  its  secretary  is 
absolutely  astonishing. ' J 

In  the  face  of  popular  distrust  so  wide- spread,  Mr. 
Benjamin's  usefulness  as  Secretary  of  War  was  ob 
viously  ended.  The  voice  of  the  people,  besides, 
found  a  willing  echo  in  Congress,  where  a  special  com 
mittee  was  called  to  investigate  the  recent  misfortunes 
and  to  place  the  blame.  The  reports  of  the  officers  in 
volved  were  submitted  to  this  committee,  and  the 
secretary  himself  was  summoned  to  testify.  There 
was  little  hope  in  the  reports  of  the  officers,  in  the 
testimony  of  the  secretary,  or  in  the  composition  of 
the  committee,  that  he  would  be  exonerated.  Mr. 
Davis,  always  doggedly  loyal  to  his  subordinates,  even 
at  the  dear  cost  of  his  own  popularity,  would  have  ig 
nored  even  Congressional  censure  and  sustained  Ben 
jamin,  but  finally  resolved  to  outwit  rather  than  directly 
withstand  the  assailants.  "It  is  said  Mr.  Benjamin 
has  been  dismissed,  or  resigned,"  writes  Jones,  in  glee, 
on  March  27,  1862.  But  next  day  he  adds,  "Mr. 


256  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

Benjamin  has  been  promoted.  He  is  now  Secretary  of 
State.7' l  Before  the  Congressional  committee  could 
render  its  fatal  report  against  Benjamin,  he  had  been 
wisely  transferred  to  the  one  department  for  which,  if 
for  any,  he  was  preeminently  fit. 

As  has  been  anticipated,  the  finding  of  the  commit 
tee  was  detailed  and  uncompromising.  After  a 
resume  of  all  the  evidence  submitted,  the  report  con 
cluded  :  "  General  Huger  and  the  Secretary  of  War  paid 
no  practical  attention  to  those  urgent  appeals  of 
General  Wise;  sent  forward  none  of  his  important 
requisitions ;  and  permitted  General  Wise  and  his  in 
considerable  force  to  remain  to  meet  at  least  15,000 
men,  well  armed  and  equipped.  If  the  Secretary  of 
War  and  the  commanding  general  at  Norfolk  had  not 
the  means  to  reenforce  General  Wise,  why  was  he  not 
ordered  to  abandon  his  position  and  save  his  com 
mand?  But,  upon  the  contrary,  he  was  required  to 
remain  and  sacrifice  his  command,  with  no  means  in 
his  insulated  position  to  make  his  escape  in  case  of  de 
feat.  The  committee,  from  the  testimony,  are  there 
fore  constrained  to  report,  that  whatever  of  blame  and 
responsibility  is  justly  attributable  to  any  one  for  the 
defeat  of  our  troops  at  Eoanoke  Island  on  February  8, 
1862,  should  attach  to  Major-General  Benjamin  Huger 
and  the  late  Secretary  of  War,  J.  P.  Benjamin."  a 

We  must  agree,  at  least  in  part,  with  the  verdict 
here  rendered,  though  our  reasons  for  concurrence 
might  be  different  from  those  that  convinced  Congress. 
Mr.  Benjamin,  in  spite  of  his  undoubted  skill  and 

1  Vol.  I,  p.  lie. 

2  Official  Records,  Series  I,  Vol.  IX,  pp.  183-190 :  cf.  pp.  122,  el 
aeq.,  132,  141,  164. 


ATTORNEY-GENERAL  257 

services  in  organizing  and  directing  the  routine  work 
of  the  War  Department,  certainly  had  displayed  no 
talent  for  the  larger  and  more  difficult  work  of  plan 
ning  or  assisting  in  the  execution  of  actual  campaigns. 
He  had  no  victory  of  importance  to  grace  his  adminis 
tration  ;  and  here  were  two  great  disasters,  to  one  of 
which,  at  least,  the  secretary  had  contributed  by  a 
serious  error  of  judgment.  After  the  war  Mr. 
Benjamin,  in  a  private  letter  to  Colonel  Charles 
Marshall,  *  furnished  an  entirely  satisfactory  and 
creditable  explanation  of  his  failure  to  respond  to 
General  Wise's  appeals  for  ammunition  :  he  had  none 
to  send.  He  had  hinted  strongly  at  that  fact  in  one 
of  his  first  replies  to  the  general,  and  it  is  wofully 
manifest  in  the  reports  of  the  Secretary  of  War  just  be 
fore  and  just  after  the  defeat.  Mr.  Benjamin  further 
more  states  that  he  and  Mr.  Davis  dared  not  present 
to  the  committee  the  whole  of  the  facts  about  the  dearth 
of  powder,  lest  news  of  the  critical  condition  should 
leak  out  and  get  to  the  Yankees ;  that  by  the  President's 
consent  and  advice  he  therefore  suppressed  the  in 
formation  that  would  have  cleared  him.  It  would  be 
idle  to  doubt  the  sincerity  of  these  statements,  or  the 
good  intentions  of  Mr.  Benjamin  ;  the  readiness  to 
shoulder  popular  odium  for  the  sake  of  the  cause  is 
characteristic  and,  of  course,  highly  commendable  in 
one  whose  absolute  devotion  to  that  cause  none  but  the 
unreflecting  could  question  ;  but  the  explanation  in 
this  letter,  which  may  be  found  treated  in  some  detail 
in  the  Life  of  General  Wise,  cannot  be  accepted  by  us 
as  it  apparently  is  there.  In  faith,  it  is  no  excuse  at 
all  for  what  we  consider  the  most  important  of  Mr. 

1  Quoted  in  Life  of  Wise,  by  B.  H.  Wise,  pp.  304-315. 


258  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

Benjamin's  faults  as  Secretary  of  War — an  error  of 
judgment.  Powder  or  no  powder  in  the  supposedly 
full  magazines  of  General  Huger,  it  was  still  within 
the  secretary's  power,  as  the  report  of  the  committee 
indicated,  to  warn  General  Wise  and  let  him  save  his 
command. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  CONFEDERATE  COMMISSIONERS 

IN  writing  of  the  period  of  Mr.  Benjamin's  life  oc 
cupied  by  his  incumbency  of  the  office  of  Secretary  of 
State,  I  shall  endeavor  to  avoid,  as  far  as  possible,  be 
ing  diverted  into  writing  a  history  of  Confederate 
diplomacy  or  foreign  relations.  I  shall  devote  my 
self,  as  largely  as  may  be,  to  Mr.  Benjamin's  own  share 
in  these  affairs.  But  for  the  coherence  and  clearness 
of  the  narrative,  it  will  be  necessary  to  outline  the 
general  course  of  events,  both  foreign  and  domestic, 
whether  or  not  we  momentarily  lose  sight  of  him 
personally. 

As  regards  the  general  condition  of  foreign  affairs, 
it  becomes  at  once  apparent  that  only  a  maritime  and 
trading  nation,  with  considerable  commerce  and  a 
respectable  navy  to  protect  it,  could  be  of  service  to 
the  blockaded  Confederacy  with  cotton  to  sell.  Such 
nations  were  not  numerous.  In  fact,  since  we  are  not 
attempting  more  than  a  sketch,  we  need  mention  only 
three  from  which  there  might  be  possibility  of  succor 
—Spain,  France,  and  England.  The  first  named, 
although  still  a  slave  power  and  therefore  at  first 
thought  less  likely  to  be  hostile,  could  hardly  be  ex 
pected  to  be  friendly  to  the  new  nation  whose  citizens, 
in  the  past,  had  been  persistent  filibusters.  There 
fore  the  ablest  representations  of  a  change  of  senti 
ment,  now  that  the  South  was  independent  of  the 
North,  had  no  weight  with  Spain.  Since  her  distrust 
could  not  be  overcome,  France  and  England  alone  re- 


260  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

mained,  and  with  them  the  Confederacy  sought  to 
establish  relations.  It  has  been  suggested  that,  with  a 
Benjamin  Franklin  to  help,  it  might  have  been  pos 
sible  for  the  Confederacy  to  succeed  in  its  revolution, 
through  foreign  aid,  just  as  the  Colonies  succeeded 
in  their  revolution.  But  a  glance  at  history  should 
suffice  to  establish  the  fact  that  this  is  a  misleading 
parallel  to  draw  between  the  relations  of  Europe 
and  the  English  Colonies  in  1778,  and  Europe  and  the 
Confederacy  in  1860.  Without  going  into  details, 
we  should  note  that  in  1778  the  traditional  enemies, 
England  and  France,  were  still  enemies  ;  France,  more 
over,  smarting  under  her  loss  of  colonial  power  to 
England,  especially  in  Canada,  hailed  with  eagerness 
the  proffered  chance  to  deal  a  telling  stroke  that  might 
cut  off  the  American  Colonies  from  perfidious  Albion. 
France,  too,  was  then  still  the  leading  power  of  the 
continent,  with  Spain,  as  it  were,  in  tow,  and  lesser 
nations  hardly  to  be  considered.  Leaving  out  of  con 
sideration  all  other  differences,  it  is  sufficient  for  our 
purpose  to  note  that  in  1860,  France  and  England  were 
on  the  friendliest  terms ;  that  there  was  no  hope  of 
fomenting  the  jealousy  or  the  cupidity  or  the  love  of 
revenge  of  one  against  the  other  ;  and  that  France,  no 
longer  assured  of  her  preeminence  in  Europe,  could 
not  have  interposed  with  the  same  effectiveness,  even 
had  she  cared  to  act  independently  of  England. 

What  had  been  done  by  the  Confederate  government 
to  make  friends  for  itself,  if  none  such  kindly  volun 
teered  to  speak  first?  Our  answer  involves  the  re 
statement  of  many  facts  that  are  very  familiar,  but  not 
to  be  overlooked.  It  must  be  confessed  that  the  Con 
federates  had  so  far  proceeded  in  a  fashion  likely  to 


THE  CONFEDEBATE  COMMISSIONEKS    261 

repel  rather  than  to  encourage  alliance  with  foreign 
powers.  There  was  among  many  of  the  leaders  of  the 
new  nation  an  arrogant  assumption  that  the  old  world 
must  come  and  make  suit  to  the  Confederacy  for  its 
friendship.  The  more  rational  among  them  understood 
enough  of  the  relations  between  peoples  to  know  that 
such  a  feeling  followed  common  interest  and  reciprocal 
advantage ;  that  pure  sentiment  had  never,  perhaps, 
hurried  even  the  most  emotional  and  romantic  of  peo 
ples  into  alliances  that  must  involve  costly  war ;  in 
short,  that  there  must  be  a  quid  pro  quo  to  secure  any 
alliance.  They  had  something  to  give,  namely,  cotton ; 
and  they  estimated  too  highly  its  value  to  the  world. 
Cotton  was  indispensable  to  England,  they  said,  and 
perhaps  also  to  France ;  cotton  was  king.  Being  an 
agricultural  people,  and  meaning,  as  soon  as  the  war 
should  be  ended,  to  establish  practical  free  trade,  they 
thought  that  the  precious  privileges  of  buying  their 
cotton  and  selling  them  in  return  the  manufactured 
articles  they  would  need,  should  be  sufficient  induce 
ment  to  secure  the  friendship  of  England  and  of 
France.  They  forgot,  apparently,  that,  granted  the 
establishment  of  their  Confederacy,  a  very  large  part 
of  their  needs  could  and  would  be  more  cheaply  sup 
plied  by  the  neighboring  manufacturing  states  of  the 
North1  than  by  any  foreign  competitor, — a  consider 
ation  that  probably  did  not  escape  France  and  Eng 
land.  They  were  therefore  offering  but  a  doubtful 
advantage  in  trade,  and  no  other  could  be  thought  of. 
This  was  understood  to  be  the  true  state  of  affairs  by 
some,  at  least,  of  the  public  men  at  the  South.3 

1  Of.  Benjamin  to  Mason,  Dec.  11,  1862 ;  see  Mason,  p.  360  et  seq. 
9  Of.  Battles  and  Leaders,  Vol.  I,  p.  108. 


262  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

But  the  government  with  which  Mr.  Benjamin  was 
associated  proceeded  for  some  time  upon  the  assump 
tion  that  cotton  was  not  merely  king  but  czar. 
Whether  Mr.  Benjamin  really  believed  in  the  false 
doctrine  of  king  cotton,  or  how  far  he  believed  in  it, 
it  is  not  possible  to  determine  absolutely.  We  would 
fain  have  him  among  the  sane  men,  like  Mr.  Ehett ; 
and  certainly  his  experience  and  knowledge  of  the 
old  world,  greater  than  that  of  most  of  his  associates, 
would  predispose  us  to  the  opinion  that  he  must  have 
known  better  than  to  imagine  that  the  South  had  both 
the  fulcrum  and  the  lever  that  would  move  the  universe 
at  will.  There  is  no  positive  proof  that  he  actively 
propagated  the  heresy  in  his  speeches ;  yet  Mr.  Bus- 
sell,  in  the  interview  referred  to  in  a  previous  chapter, 
reports  that,  "  Mr.  Benjamin  did  not  appear  afraid  of 
anything  ;  but  his  confidence  respecting  Great  Britain 
was  based  a  good  deal,  no  doubt,  on  his  firm  faith  in 
cotton,  and  in  England's  utter  subjection  to  her  cotton 
interests  and  manufactures."  The  same  Mr.  Russell, 
now  become  Sir  William,  adds  elsewhere  : l  u  Many 
long  years  afterward  I  walked  with  Mr.  Benjamin 
from  a  pleasant  dinner  party  in  Mayfair,  and  reminded 
him  of  our  conversation  in  Montgomery.  c  Ah,  yes, ' 
he  said,  '  I  admit  I  was  mistaken  !  I  did  not  believe 
that  your  government  would  allow  such  misery  to  your 
operatives,  such  loss  to  your  manufacturers,  or  that  the 
people  themselves  would  have  borne  it.' '  Further 
more,  whether  so  misguided  himself  or  not,  Benjamin 
cooperated  with  a  government  that  was.  Perhaps  he 
really  believed  otherwise ;  perhaps  he  pressed,  in  the 
secret  meetings  of  the  cabinet,  for  some  such  instruc- 

1  North  American  Review,  1898,  p.  373. 


THE  CONFEDERATE  COMMISSIONERS    263 

tions  to  the  Confederate  commissioners  as  Mr.  Rhett 
had  outlined,  and  merely  surrendered  his  own  views 
in  order  that  there  might  be  harmony  in  the  govern 
ment.  If  this  be  so,  it  is  more  creditable  to  his  loyalty 
than  to  his  intelligence. 

When  Mr.  Benjamin  became  Secretary  of  State, 
nearly  all  of  the  important  diplomatic  or  quasi-diplo 
matic  agents  of  the  Confederacy  had  been  appointed, 
and  the  policy  of  the  government,  following  the  lines 
indicated,  had  been  defined,  although  "the  policy  of 
the  State  Department,"  writes1  the  courteous  and  dis 
creet  Mr.  L.  Q.  Washington,  assistant  secretary  and 
chief  clerk,  "can  hardly  be  said  to  have  taken  shape 
and  development  during  Mr.  Toombs's  incumbency." 
Mr.  Toombs,  in  fact,  is  said  to  have  declared  that  he 
carried  the  archives  of  the  State  Department  under  his 
hat — one  recalls  Lincoln's  post-office,  said  to  have  been 
similarly  kept.  Matters  had  rather  bettered  under 
Secretary  Hunter,  who  had  sent  out,  in  the  autumn  of 
1861,  the  most  notable  emissaries  of  all,  Messrs.  Mason 
and  Slidell,  with  instructions2  to  pursue  a  policy  as 
rational,  perhaps,  as  was  possible  without  treason  to 
King  Cotton. 

When  these  two  gentlemen  were  inadvisedly  seized 
on  board  the  British  ship  Trent,  Mr.  Benjamin,  with 
the  rest  of  the  Confederacy,  had  hoped  that  the  inci 
dent  would  involve  the  Yankees  in  a  war  with  Eng 
land,  and  had  smiled  at  Jones's  rhetorical  bombast 
about  its  bringing  "the  Eagle  cowering  to  the  feet  of 
the  Lion."  But  this  hope  had  faded  and  been  suc 
ceeded  by  others  on  the  kaleidoscope  with  which  the 

1  Lawley  MS. 

2  Callahan,  Diplomatic  History,  p.  133. 


264  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

South  was  amusing  itself,  before  Mr.  Benjamin  was 
called  upon  to  preside  at  that  machine.  After  all, 
even  if  England  had  shown  signs  of  fighting  in  defense 
of  her  flag,  it  could  not  have  pleased  the  new  Secretary 
of  State  to  read  in  the  London  Times,1  that  "  Messrs. 
Mason  and  Slidell  are  about  the  most  worthless  booty 
it  would  be  possible  to  extract  from  the  jaws  of  the 
American  lion.  They  have  long  been  known  as  the 
blind  and  habitual  haters  and  revilers  of  this  country. 
.  .  .  It  is  through  their  lifelong  hatred  and  abuse 
of  England  that  they  come  here  in  their  present  con 
spicuous  capacity.  .  .  .  So  we  do  sincerely  hope 
that  our  countrymen  will  not  give  these  fellows  any 
thing  in  the  shape  of  an  ovation.  .  .  .  They  must 
not  suppose,  because  we  have  gone  to  the  very  verge 
of  a  great  war  to  rescue  them,  that  therefore  they  are 
precious  in  our  eyes.  We  should  have  done  just  as 
much  to  rescue  two  of  their  own  negroes,  and,  had 
that  been  the  object  of  the  rescue,  the  swarthy  Pompey 
and  Caesar  would  have  had  just  the  same  right  to 
triumphal  arches  and  municipal  addresses  as  Messrs. 
Mason  and  Slidell."  Clearly,  Mr.  Mason  would  find 
the  need  of  much  suavity  and  cleverness  if  he  hoped 
to  win  the  confidence  of  the  "  Thunderer"  and  its 
readers. 

It  may  be  proper  here  to  consider  the  personal  quali 
fications  of  the  two  Confederate  commissioners  for  the 
delicate  missions  to  which  they  had  been  assigned. 
Both  had  the  full  confidence  of  the  Eichmond  govern 
ment.  Though  more  intimate  with  Slidell,  Benjamin 
knew  Mr.  Mason  thoroughly ;  hence  the  most  com 
plete  accord  might  be  looked  for  between  the  gov- 

» Jan  11,  cited  by  Rhodes,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  540,  note. 


THE  CONFEDERATE  COMMISSIONERS    265 

eminent  and  both  of  its  envoys.  Of  Mr.  Mason  first, 
it  can  hardly  be  far  wrong  to  say  that  his  polit 
ical  record  was  not  such  as  to  make  him  altogether 
persona  grata  in  England.  An  extremist  in  his  state 
rights  and  pro-slavery  opinions,  generally  known  as 
the  author  of  the  drastic  Fugitive  Slave  Law  of  1850, ' 
and  forcing  himself  to  the  front  in  speech  and  action 
whenever  these  questions  came  up, — such  a  record, 
blazoned  in  the  press,  could  not  be  forgotten.  Nor 
was  the  uncompromising  Virginian  solicitous  to  con 
ceal  his  opinions  in  deference  to  the  contrary  view 
of  the  government  to  which  he  was  sent  to  plead  the 
cause  of  the  Confederacy.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to 
point  out  that  pro-slavery  sentiments  could  not  meet 
with  the  open  approval  of  Earl  Russell,  unless  that 
individual  were  mightily  changed  from  the  Lord  John 
of  earlier  days.  The  political  antecedents  of  the  com 
missioner,  therefore,  were  unfortunate,  and  not  modi 
fied  by  present  demeanor.  Mr.  Mason  was  a  man  of 
good  abilities,  and  sterling  uprightness  of  character, 
honest  and  reliable,  lacking  neither  in  mental  capacity 
nor  in  energy.  But  he  was  unbending  in  temper, 
rather  cold  in  manner,  and  sensitive  about  his  dignity. 
On  a  mission  from  a  government  of  no  certain  stand 
ing  among  the  nations,  and  which  had  proffered  noth 
ing  but  a  dangerous  friendship  in  return  for  the  re 
ception  it  sought  in  England,  it  behooved  him  to 
approach  the  British  authorities  with  extreme  defer 
ence  ;  to  submit  without  manifesting  resentment  to 
such  treatment  as  might  very  properly  have  been 
resented  by  an  established  government  ;  to  be  patient 
and  long-suffering  while  he  sought  to  make  good 
1  See  Mason,  p.  81. 


266  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

the  claims  of  his  people.  Such  considerations  could 
not  escape  a  man  so  intelligent  as  Mr.  Mason,  and 
with  good  intent  he  endeavored  to  act  accordingly ; 
but  personality  is  often  stronger  than  intelligence,  and 
in  spite  of  himself  his  attitude  toward  the  British 
government  was  rather  that  of  one  demanding  a  patent 
right  than  of  one  asking  action  that  would  be  im 
mensely  helpful  to  his  people  and  probably  very  costly 
to  England.  This  much,  I  think,  may  be  justly  said 
without  undue  disparagement  of  one  who  loyally  did 
his  best.  His  position  was  extremely  difficult  and 
trying ;  but  he  should  have  realized  that  it  could  not 
be  otherwise.  On  the  whole,  therefore,  the  conclusion 
seems  justifiable  that  a  man  of  greater  urbanity,  of 
more  flexible  temperament  and  pleasing  address  might 
have  had  better  success. 

Such  a  man,  if  he  could  possibly  have  been  spared 
at  home,  was  the  Secretary  of  State  himself.  Such  a 
man,  too,  in  certain  respects,  was  Mr.  Slidell,  who  in 
his  dealings  with  the  polite  but  rather  unreliable 
French  authorities  displayed  even  greater  patience 
and  self-control  than  Benjamin.  While  his  political 
history  would,  doubtless,  have  been  no  more  satisfac 
tory  in  England  than  Mason's,  he  had  some  of  the 
very  personal  qualifications  which  the  latter  lacked. 
He  would  have  been  more  patient  as  well  as  more 
insinuating.  Although  perhaps  of  no  greater  intellec 
tual  ability,  and  of  less  forceful  character,  than  Mason, 
he  was  a  more  adroit  politician,  and  proved  a  better 
diplomat.  Yet  the  connections  of  his  family  and  his 
personality  best  fitted  him  for  the  post  he  was  sent  to 
occupy,  as  he  was  in  general  of  a  type  extremely  dif 
ferent  from  the  English  and  not  likely  to  win  their 


THE  CONFEDEKATE  COMMISSIONEKS    267 

confidence.  Slidell  proved  a  good  choice  for  France ;  it 
is  doubtful  if  he  would  have  suited  so  well  in  England. 
When  Benjamin  assumed  charge  of  his  office,  offi 
cial  news  of  the  reception  accorded  the  Confederate 
commissioners  was  still  lacking,  for  even  now  dis 
patches  came  through  but  slowly  and  at  great  hazard. 
Accordingly  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Mason  :  "  In  the  absence 
of  reliable  information  as  to  the  present  condition  of 
public  affairs  in  England  and  the  tone  and  temper  of 
its  government  and  people,  the  President  does  not  deem 
it  advisable  to  make  any  change  in  the  instructions 
communicated  to  you  by  my  predecessor. ' 7 1  The  earlier 
dispatches,  therefore,  confine  themselves  largely  to  a 
summary  of  military  and  naval  operations,  lest  Mason 
be  misled  by  the  Federal  accounts.  It  must  have  been 
far  from  pleasant  to  tell  of  the  loss  of  Forts  Donelson  and 
Henry  and  of  Eoanoke  Island,  which  disasters,  the  sec 
retary  says,2  have  had  the  good  effect  of  rousing  the  peo 
ple  to  a  proper  sense  of  the  magnitude  of  the  struggle 
in  which  they  are  engaged  and  of  the  necessity  for 
strenuous  exertion.  The  effort  to  prove  the  blockade 
ineffective  is  still  most  conspicuous,  as  for  example, 
in  the  dispatch  of  April  8th  above  referred  to  :  "  You 
will  find  annexed  a  list  showing  the  number  and  char 
acter  of  the  vessels  which  have  traded  between  our 
ports  and  foreign  countries,  during  the  months  of  No 
vember,  December,  and  January.  They  exceed  one 
hundred  in  number,  and  establish  in  the  most  conclu 
sive  manner  the  inefficiency  of  the  blockade  which  it 
has  pleased  neutral  nations  heretofore  to  respect  as 
binding  on  their  commerce.'7  In  his  third  dispatch  to 

1  Dispatch  to  Mason,  April  8  ;  see  Mason,  p.  291. 
9  Dispatch  to  Mason,  April  5 ;  see  Mason,  p.  288. 


268  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

Mason,1  dated  April  12th,  he  discusses  at  some  length 
the  difficulty  of  communicating  with  the  envoys,  and 
broaches  the  question,  whether  dispatches  to  a  neutral 
power  may  properly  be  considered  contraband  of  war, 
and  if  not,  what  is  the  distinction  between  these  and 
dispatches  to  an  envoy  to  a  neutral  power.  That  Ben 
jamin  should  have  wasted  his  time  in  formulating  so 
futile  a  proposition,  is  indication  of  the  annoyance  he 
felt  at  the  delays  in  hearing  from  the  men  whose  policy 
he  was  supposed  to  direct.  In  this  same  dispatch  we 
find  a  passage  that  may  be  quoted  to  show  the  line  of 
argument  upon  which  he  urged  Mason  to  proceed : 
4 '  So  long  as  England  as  well  as  the  other  neutral 
powers  shall  continue  practically  to  assert,  as  they 
now  do,  their  disbelief  of  our  ability  to  maintain  our 
government,  what  probability  is  there  that  our  enemy 
will  fail  to  rely  on  that  very  fact  as  the  best  ground  for 
hope  in  continued  hostilities?  Without  intending 
that  their  policy  should  be  thus  disastrous  in  its  re 
sults,  it  cannot  be  doubted  on  reflection,  that  the  delay 
of  the  neutral  powers  in  recognizing  the  nationality  of 
the  South  is  exerting  a  very  powerful  influence  in  pre 
venting  the  restoration  of  peace  on  this  continent ;  and 
in  thus  injuriously  affecting  vast  interests  of  their  own 
which  depend  for  prosperity  and  even  for  existence  on 
free  intercourse  with  the  South.  There  is  every  reason 
to  believe  that  our  recognition  would  be  the  signal  for 
the  immediate  organization  of  a  large  and  influential 
party  in  the  Northern  states  favorable  to  putting  an 
end  to  the  war.  It  would  be  considered  the  verdict 
of  an  impartial  jury  adverse  to  their  pretensions. " 
This  is  cogent  reasoning  in  expression  of  the  opinion 

1  Mason,  p.  293. 


THE  CONFEBBEATB  COMMISSIONERS    269 

on  which  the  envoys  were  consistently  urged  to  insist, 
that  recognition  alone,  without  intervention,  would 
end  the  war.  If  recognition  had  come  early,  indeed, 
it  seems  entirely  probable  that  this  opinion  would  have 
been  justified  by  the  event. 

Presently,  however,  news  began  to  arrive  from  the 
envoys.  Mr.  Slidell,  whom  we  shall  mention  briefly 
first,  reported  an  encouraging  reception  from  the  of 
ficials  in  Paris,  and  in  his  initial  dispatch 1  had  given 
his  government  a  summary  of  political  conditions  that 
strikes  the  keynote  for  the  relations  between  the  Con 
federacy  and  France.  He  told  the  Secretary  of  State 
that  there  was  much  favor  expressed  on  all  sides  for 
the  South,  and  that  he  believed  the  Emperor  and  the 
higher  officials  to  be  really  friendly.  He  perceived  at 
once  that  the  question  of  slavery  was  to  have  a  power 
ful  influence  upon  the  foreign  relations  of  the  Confed 
eracy,  and  stated  that,  although  the  public  sentiment 
was  opposed  to  slavery,  opposition  was  not  so  earnest 
as  in  England,  rather  the  academic  opinion  of  a  people 
not  directly  concerned.  All  things  considered,  there 
fore,  the  French  government  would  be  inclined  to 
favor  the  Confederacy,  and  the  French  people  would 
not  resist  the  Emperor  in  such  a  policy.  But, 
owing  to  political  complications,  particularly  in  the 
aifairs  of  Italy  and  Mexico,  and  to  financial  embar 
rassments,  France  did  not  wish  to  take  the  initiative 
in  any  decisive  action,  feeling,  moreover,  that  Eng 
land,  having  more  at  stake  than  she,  should  have  the 
lead.  Such  had  been  the  fruit  of  reflection  upon  what 
he  heard  in  private  conversation,  or  read  in  the  press ; 
and  this  had  been  confirmed  by  his  interviews  with 

1  Pickett  Papers,  Feb.  11,  1862. 


270  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

M.  Thouvenel,  the  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs,  and 
Count  de  Persigny,  Minister  of  the  Interior,  both  very 
non-committal  but  of  courteous  and  even  friendly 
bearing. 

Meanwhile  Mr.  Mason  had  been  received  in  some 
thing  of  the  triumphal  arch  style  deprecated  by  the 
Times,  and  had  been  a  good  deal  misled  by  this  en 
thusiastic  welcome.  It  cannot  be  determined  with 
absolute  certainty,  of  course,  what  were  the  sympathies 
of  the  voting  majority  in  England.  The  fact  seems  to 
be  that,  in  spite  of  what  we  consider  her  vital  interest 
in  the  speedy  settlement  of  the  war,  these  were  not 
vital  enough  to  permit  of  the  American  question's  be 
coming  a  party  issue.  The  government  of  the  day, 
while  not  deserving  great  praise  for  its  American 
policy,  understood  enough  of  its  true  duties  to  await 
manifestations  of  the  popular  will ;  and  as  yet  there 
had  been  no  manifestation  of  real  popular  concern  in 
the  affairs  of  the  "kin  across  the  sea.77  Mr.  Mason, 
however,  did  not  see  this,  and  was  disposed  to  attach 
undue  political  weight  to  the  merely  social  courtesies 
that  were  extended  to  him  so  generously  and  pleas 
antly.  The  membership  of  the  House  of  Lords,  I  sup 
pose,  was  beyond  question  overwhelmingly  in  favor 
of  the  Confederacy  at  this  time  ;  but  Mr.  Mason  should 
have  remembered  that,  in  politics  at  least,  it  was  not  a 
mere  jest  that  had  identified  the  House  of  Lords  with 
the  excellent  Mrs.  Partington.  Contrasting  the  cor 
diality  of  the  upper  classes  in  England,  apparently  the 
predominating  sentiment,  with  the  cautious  and  cold 
refusals  of  Eussell  to  have  any  official  relations  with 
him,  Mr.  Mason  resented  this  attitude,  and  finally  came 
to  conceive  the  false  notion  that  the  minister  alone 


THE  CONFEDERATE  COMMISSIONERS    271 

stood  in  the  way  of  foreign  recognition  for  the  Con 
federate  States;  that,  somehow,  he  did  not  in  this 
faithfully  represent  the  will  of  the  English  people,  and 
that  he  was  unduly  influenced  by  the  bald  misrepre 
sentations  of  Secretary  Seward.  In  his  dispatch  of 
June  23,  1862, l  he  even  intimated  that  it  might  be 
come  incompatible  with  his  official  dignity  to  remain 
in  London,  for  he  had  concluded  that  when  recognition 
was  next  proposed — he  did  not  mean  to  act  at  the 
present  time — it  should  be  "  presented  as  a  demand  of 
right ;  and  if  refused — as  I  have  little  doubt  it  would 
be — to  follow  the  refusal  by  a  note,  that  I  did  not  con 
sider  it  compatible  with  the  dignity  of  my  government, 
and  perhaps  with  my  own  self-respect,  to  remain  longer 
in  England." 

Immediately  upon  the  receipt  of  this  rather  alarming 
news,  Benjamin  sat  down  to  implore  Mason  not  to  act 
rashly  and  to  impress  upon  him  the  value  of  his  mere 
presence  in  London  to  await  eventualities ;  for  the 
withdrawal  was  a  step  that  should  not  be  taken  "  with 
out  very  grave  and  weighty  reasons."  2  Fortunately, 
Mr.  Mason  had  not  acted  on  this  impulse,  and  relieved 
the  anxiety  at  Eichmond  by  announcing  in  subsequent 
dispatches  that  he  had  decided  not  to  withdraw  with 
out  authorization,  except  in  some  extreme  case.  But 
the  impression  being  made  by  his  advices  may  be 
seen  from  the  references  in  Benjamin's  dispatch3  of 
October  28th  to  the  "scant  courtesy"  with  which 
Mr.  Mason  had  been  treated  by  Earl  Russell,  and  to 
the  "marked  contrast  between  the  conduct  of  the 

1  Mason,  p.  279. 

2  Dispatch  September  26  ;  see  Mason,  pp.  303-306. 
8  Mason,  p.  339. 


272  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

English  and  French  statesmen  now  in  office,  in  their 
intercourse  with  foreign  agents,  eminently  discreditable 
to  the  former.'7  In  the  next  dispatch 1  he  writes  more 
fully  that  the  offensive  conduct  of  Lord  Eussell,  in 
several  particulars  which  he  recites,  would  be  "  con 
clusive  in  determining  [the  President]  to  direct  your 
withdrawal  from  your  mission,  but  for  other  consider 
ations  which  have  brought  him  to  a  different  con 
clusion.  The  chief  of  these  is  the  conviction  enter 
tained  that  on  this  subject  the  British  cabinet  is  not  a 
fair  exponent  of  the  sentiments  and  opinions  of  the 
British  nation.  Not  only  from  your  own  dispatches, 
but  from  the  British  press  and  from  numerous  other 
sources  of  information,  all  tending  to  the  same  result, 
we  cannot  resist  the  conclusion  that  the  public  opinion 
of  England,  in  accordance  with  that  of  almost  all 
Europe,  approaches  unanimity  in  according  our  right 
to  recognition  as  an  independent  nation.  It  is  true 
that  in  official  intercourse  we  cannot  look  to  any  other 
than  the  British  cabinet  as  the  organ  of  the  British 
nation  j  but  it  is  equally  true  that  in  a  government  so 
dependent  for  continued  existence  on  its  conformity 
with  public  opinion,  no  ministry  whose  course  of  policy 
is  in  conflict  with  that  opinion  can  long  continue  in 
office.  It  is  certain,  therefore,  that  there  must  very 
soon  occur  such  a  change  of  policy  in  the  cabinet  of 
St.  James  as  will  relieve  all  embarrassments  in  your 
position  arising  from  the  unfriendly  feelings  toward 
us,  and  the  dread  of  displeasing  the  United  States, 
which  have  hitherto  been  exhibited  by  Earl  Eussell." 
Accordingly,  the  body  of  the  dispatch  contains  further 
arguments,  based  on  the  blockade  and  the  application 

1  October  31 ;  Mason,  p.  330,  et  sey. 


THE  CONFEDERATE  COMMISSIONERS    273 

of  the  Treaty  of  Paris  chiefly,  to  be  used  by  Mr.  Mason 
when  a  fit  opportunity  should  occur.  The  niisjudg- 
ment  of  British  public  opinion  is  evident ;  how  much 
excuse  there  was  for  such  error,  to  which  Mr.  Mason's 
reports  had  contributed  no  little,  may  be  seen  pres 
ently. 

But  when  this  dispatch  was  penned,  the  golden 
opportunity  in  England  had  slipped  away  un 
noticed,  and  though  others  were  to  come  in  the 
course  of  the  strife,  there  were  none  quite  so  full  of 
promise.  In  order  to  appreciate  this,  we  must  con 
sider  the  fortunes  of  the  war,  and  the  news  of  Ameri 
can  events  as  it  came  to  England ;  for  never  was  the 
diplomatic  fate  of  a  nation  more  absolutely  subject 
to  the  chances  of  war  than  that  of  the  Confederacy. 
There  was  no  cable  then ;  and  though  mail  service 
was  not  much  slower  than  now,  there  could  not  be  con 
tinuous  communication.  Moreover  the  news  brought 
by  one  ship  might  be  contradicted  by  the  next,  so  full 
of  falsehoods  were  many  of  the  reports  printed  in  the 
Northern  papers — and  the  Southern  journals  were  as 
bad  ;  it  was  only  that  their  opportunities  of  misleading 
the  outside  world  were  much  curtailed  by  the  blockade. 
Let  us  glance  at  the  events  of  the  spring  and  summer 
of  1862,  that  we  may  better  understand  diplomatic 
affairs. 

Upon  the  retreat  of  General  Albert  Sidney  Johnston 
from  Kentucky,  the  people  of  the  Southwest,  and  of 
New  Orleans  in  particular,  answering  his  and  Beaure- 
gard's  very  urgent  appeal,  put  forth  their  utmost  en 
deavors  to  rebuild  another  army  about  the  nucleus  of 
twelve  or  fifteen  thousand  left  after  Donelson  and  re 
sultant  disasters.  Of  men  there  came  a  plenty,  of 


274  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

arms  and  material,  pitifully  little,  and  that  distress 
ingly  bad ;  but  the  host  gathered  full  of  high  hopes 
and  of  courage,  and  never  did  raw  soldiers  fight  better 
than  those  under  Johnston  and  Beauregard  in  the 
bloody  fields  about  Shiloh  Church.  Though  both  sides 
claimed  a  victory,  and  with  some  right,  the  death  of 
General  Johnston  and  the  loss  of  his  daring  spirit,  were 
more  costly  to  the  Confederates  than  were  their  ten 
thousand  dead,  wounded,  and  missing  to  the  Union 
army.  It  was  then,  while  Benjamin  was  composing 
his  first  dispatches,  that  details  of  the  great  battle 
were  coming  into  Richmond,  and  Jones  was  writing  : l 

u  The  President  is  thin  and  haggard  ;  and  it  has  been 
whispered  on  the  street  that  he  will  immediately  be 
baptized  and  confirmed.  I  hope  so,  because  it  may 
place  a  great  gulf  between  him  and  the  descendant  of 
those  who  crucified  the  Saviour.  Nevertheless,  some 
of  his  enemies  allege  that  professions  of  Christianity 
have  sometimes  been  the  premeditated  accompaniments 
of  usurpation.  It  was  so  with  Cromwell  and  with 
Eichard  III." 

The  anxiety  of  the  President  at  this  time  was  not 
without  reason  ;  for  soon  New  Orleans  fell,  a  loss  most 
severe  in  a  military  way,  leading  to  the  opening  of  the 
Mississippi  and  the  dividing  of  the  Confederacy  ;  and 
yet  more  unfortunate  still  in  its  effect  on  foreign 
opinion.  It  was  then,  too,  that  McClellau,  at  last 
goaded  into  action  and  following  a  route  to  which  the 
Northern  armies  ultimately  had  to  return,  gathered 
his  vast  army  in  the  Peninsula  while  the  thin  Con 
federate  line,  at  first  under  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  and 
when  he  fell  wounded  at  Fair  Oaks,  under  the  yet 

1  April  18,  Vol.  I,  p.  120. 


THE  CONFEDERATE  COMMISSIONERS    275 

untried  Eobert  E.  Lee,  faced  him  and  baffled  him 
throughout  the  month  of  June.  But  it  was  a  perilous 
season  for  Richmond,  when  Lee  could  write  to  Jack 
son  that,  unless  they  could  drive  McClellan  out  of  his 
entrenchments  he  would  push  up  those  entrenchments 
till  his  guns  commanded  the  capital.  Jackson  and 
Lee,  taking  great  risks  which  were  no  risks  only  be 
cause  these  men  carried  things  through,  first  assailed 
the  helpless  incompetents  playing  at  soldier  in  the 
Sheuandoah  Valley,  and  demoralized  the  politicians 
in  Washington  j  then  struck  swiftly  at  a  segregated 
wing  of  McClellan' s  army  down  on  the  Chicka- 
hominy,  at  Games' s  Mill,  demoralized  that  general,  and 
followed  him,  with  many  a  desperate  fight,  through 
the  Seven  Days'  Battles.  McClellan  "  changed  his 
base"  to  the  James  Eiver.  Doubtless  it  was  a  wise 
move,  and  effected  with  great  military  skill ;  but  to 
the  world  it  was  an  acknowledgment  that  the  cam 
paign  had  been  a  failure.  Europe  wondered,  and,  in 
spite  of  sympathies,  praised  Jackson's  brilliant  ex 
ploits  ;  and  though  Malvern  Hill  was  bloody,  though 
it  may  have  been  tactically  a  mistake  on  the  part  of 
Lee,  she  saw  that,  after  all  the  immense  and  costly 
preparations  of  the  North,  their  plans  had  been  utterly 
frustrated. 

There  was  now  a  distinct  lull  in  active  operations, 
giving  time  for  foreign  opinion  to  become  instructed 
on  these  events,  while  McClellan  sat  down  to  nurse  his 
wounds  and  his  wrath,  and  the  Washington  politicians 
sought  a  less  timorous  Napoleon.  He  is  found,  and  the 
cry  is,  Make  way  for  General  Pope,  he  who  is  used  to 
behold  the  backs  of  his  enemies,  and  who  dictates 
orders  from  "  headquarters  in  the  saddle."  And  again 


276  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

the  wit  of  Lee  and  Jackson  is  matched,  if  one  may  so 
use  the  word,  against  that  of  Pope  with  some  assist 
ance  from  Washington,  till  there  come  in  order  Gaines 
ville,  Groveton, — and  a  second  Bull  Eun,  with  the 
capital,  on  September  2d,  again  in  panic  and  scrambling 
for  its  swords  and  guns  to  repulse  the  "  rebels "  be 
lieved  to  be  following  on  Pope's  heels.  Neither  Union 
nor  Confederate  armies  ever  after  had  much  acquaint 
ance  with  his  back  or  front.  The  politicians  were, 
for  a  season,  brought  low  before  McClellan,  to  whom 
they  appealed  for  counsel  and  defense  in  this  hour  of 
peril.  Not  very  reassuring  news  this,  to  go  over  to 
Europe,  that  the  man  who  had  but  two  months  be 
fore  been  outwitted  by  Lee  and  Jackson,  was  the  only 
officer  to  whom  the  Union  could  venture  to  entrust  the 
army  that  must  now  be  hastily  gathered  to  protect 
Washington  and  Baltimore  from  the  victorious  Con 
federates,  led  by  generals  who  were  fast  proving 
themselves  strategists  of  the  first  rank,  and  who  now 
had  crossed  the  Potomac  into  Maryland. 

Here  was  the  critical  moment  for  the  Confederacy, 
both  in  its  military  affairs  and  in  its  hopes  of  Great 
Britain's  recognition.  General  Lee,  acting  with  his 
usual  promptitude  and  decision,  seized  the  moment 
of  panic  and  demoralization  consequent  upon  the  sec 
ond  Bull  Run  to  risk  an  incursion  across  the  border. 
With  forces  far  more  slender  than  ascribed  to  him  by 
panic-stricken  foes,  with  a  commissariat  the  very 
thought  of  which  would  have  made  the  pampered  Fed 
eral  troops  feel  the  pangs  of  starvation,  and  dependent 
for  his  ammunition  on  a  long  and  precarious  line,  it  was 
yet  with  a  most  splendid  army  of  victorious  veterans 
that  Lee  marched  into  Maryland.  Good  news  was 


THE  CONFEDERATE  COMMISSIONERS    277 

hoped  for  from  Kirby  Smith  and  from  Bragg  in  Ken 
tucky,  who  threatened  Cincinnati  and  Louisville  ;  and 
could  his  soldiers  but  once  more  do  what  seemed  im 
possible, — win  a  victory  where  all  the  odds  of  numbers 
and  equipment  were  against  them, — General  Lee 
meant,  on  the  morrow  of  this  fresh  success,  to  offer 
peace  to  the  North  on  the  condition  of  the  recognition 
of  Southern  independence ;  and  by  this  appeal  from  the 
Washington  government  to  the  people  in  their  hour 
of  discouragement  he  and  Davis  quite  reasonably 
hoped  to  shake,  if  not  utterly  to  break,  the  resolution 
to  reconquer  the  seceded  states.  Often  had  he,  with 
the  aid  of  Jackson  and  Longstreet,  taken  desperate 
chances,  relying  on  the  chapter  of  accidents,  and  on 
the  probable  mistakes  of  the  less  able  generals  op 
posed  to  them  ;  and  success  had  often  justified  him. 

The  authorities  in  Richmond  were  heartily  in  accord 
with  Lee,  and  inspired  by  his  confidence.  Davis  pre 
pared  to  go  to  the  field,  but  was  asked  not  to  expose  him 
self.  Benjamin,  now  learning  of  Mason's  ill  success, 
hoped  to  have  news  to  send  him  on  which  he  might 
base  a  yet  stronger  argument  for  "the  acknowledg 
ment  of  a  fact  patent  to  mankind  "—the  recognition  of 
Confederate  independence.  Greater  still  would  have 
been  his  anxiety  if  he  could  have  known  what  was 
passing  in  England.  She  had  watched  with  grow 
ing  interest  the  campaigns  of  this  active  spring  and 
summer ;  and  as  she  watched,  greater  had  grown  her 
sympathy  with  the  generals  of  the  Confederacy  and 
her  confidence  in  the  ultimate  success  of  its  cause. 
Mason  took  heart  of  grace,  after  the  news  of  McClelland 
retreat  from  Richmond,  and  asked  for  a  personal  inter 
view  with  Russell,  that  he  might  the  more  forcibly 


278  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

present  the  arguments  with  which  he  was  armed  by 
his  State  Department ;  but  the  interview  was  declined  : 
"Her  Majesty's  government  are  still  determined  to 
wait."  Then,  while  Mason  consoled  himself  with  the 
thought  that  the  Alabama  had  been  allowed  to 
sail,  and  that  public  sympathy  was  manifestly  tending 
his  way,  came  the  news  of  Pope's  defeat,  and  of  Lee's 
advance  into  Maryland,  in  the  early  days  of  Septem 
ber.  The  British  press  considered  the  Federal  cause 
hopeless,  and  Lord  Palmerston  was  writing  to  Lord 
Eussell  that  the  Yankees  had  "  got  a  very  complete 
smashing,"  and  that,  in  the  probable  event  of  the 
capture  of  Baltimore  or  Washington,  the  time  seemed 
to  have  come  when  his  government  and  France  should 
"  address  the  contending  parties  and  recommend  an 
arrangement  upon  the  basis  of  separation."  "  I  agree 
with  you,"  replied  Eussell,  "that  the  time  has  come 
for  offering  mediation  to  the  United  States  government 
with  a  view  to  the  recognition  of  the  independence  of 
the  Confederates.  I  agree,  further,  that,  in  case  of 
failure,  we  ought  ourselves  to  recognize  the  Southern 
States  as  an  independent  state."  But  Palmerston, 
again  cautious,  as  the  risk  of  Lee's  campaign  became 
clearer,  counseled  delay  :  in  case  the  Federal  army 
again  met  defeat,  then  would  be  the  time  to  offer 
intervention;  but  if  not,  "we  may  wait  awhile  and 
see  what  may  follow."  1 

What  followed  was  the  news  of  the  great  battle  of 
Sharpsburg,  or  Antietam,  and  the  checking  of  Gen 
eral  Lee.  Though  it  was  not  a  very  costly  defeat,  the 
prime  object  of  his  campaign  had  been  lost,  and  he 

1  Walpole's  Life  of  Russell,  Vol.  II,  pp.  349,  350,  cited  by  Rhodes, 
Vol.  IV,  p.  338. 


THE  CONFEDEEATE  COMMISSIONEES    279 

must  seek  safety  on  his  own  side  of  the  Potomac. 
Then  came  the  news  that  he  had  been  permitted  to 
withdraw  his  army  in  fairly  good  order,  and  that 
McClellan  had  been  dilatory  in  pursuit  of  the  South 
ern  troops.  No  wonder  that  Benjamin,  writing  to  calm 
Mason  at  this  time,  should  have  been  urgent  with  him 
not  to  leave  the  ungracious  Eussell ;  for  even  the  re 
sults  of  the  campaign  as  they  then  showed  would 
add  force  to  the  Confederate  demand  if  it  had  been 
pressed.  He  could  not  know,  of  course,  that  Adams 
was  thinking  that  his  mission  would  end  before 
the  winter  was  over,  and  that  as  the  October  days 
came  on,  and  England  still  heard  that  Lee's  army 
was  intact  and  McClellan  still  afraid  of  it,  the 
tide  of  Southern  sympathies  would  sweep  higher 
and  even  engulf  a  prominent  member  of  the  British 
government.  Gladstone,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Ex 
chequer,  declared  at  Newcastle,  October  7th,  "  There 
is  no  doubt  that  Jefferson  Davis  and  other  leaders 
of  the  South  have  made  an  army ;  they  are  mak 
ing,  it  appears,  a  navy ;  and  they  have  made,  what 
is  more  than  either — they  have  made  a  nation. 
.  .  .  We  may  anticipate  with  certainty  the  suc 
cess  of  the  Southern  states  so  far  as  their  sepa 
ration  from  the  North  is  concerned."  *  Meanwhile 
Lincoln,  taking  advantage  of  Antietam  in  the  same 
way  that  the  Confederates  had  hoped  to  do,  had  issued 
his  Proclamation  of  Emancipation,  but  even  that  was 
as  yet  coldly  received  in  England.  And  while  the 
cabinet  were  meditating  a  meeting  to  discuss  their 
policy  in  American  affairs,  with  every  likelihood  that 
they  would  decide  on  a  course  helpful  to  the  South, 

» Rhodes,  Vol.  IV,  p.  339. 


280  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

the  clever  Adains  managed  to  convey  indirectly  to 
their  ears  the  instructions  he  had  received  from 
Washington  :  "  If  the  British  government,  either  alone 
or  in  combination  with  any  other  government,  should 
acknowledge  the  insurgents,  .  .  .  you  will  im 
mediately  suspend  the  exercise  of  your  functions,  and 
give  notice  of  that  suspension  to  Earl  Eussell  and  to 
this  department."  The  possibilities  of  war  with  Great 
Britain  and  other  powers,  wrote  Seward,  under 
Lincoln's  instructions,  had  been  weighed,  and  did  not 
appall  the  United  States.  The  cabinet  meeting  was 
postponed,  and  with  it  the  question  of  Southern  in 
dependence  ;  though  the  British  ministers  might  again 
approach  the  danger  line  marked  out  by  Lincoln,  they 
would  not  cross  it. 

Benjamin  had  no  such  trump  card  to  play,  nor  could 
he  know  that  henceforth  it  was  beyond  all  human 
probability  that  any  representations  he  might  make 
through  Mason  would  have  any  other  than  superficial 
effect.  In  his  dispatches  during  the  autumn  of  1862 
he  sends  constant  reinforcements  to  the  arguments  al 
ready  familiar  to  us,  taking  advantage  of  every  favor 
able  chance  of  battle  to  present  in  new  forms  (1)  the 
inefficiency  of  the  blockade,  maintained  but  fitfully  at 
many  ports,  and  many  times  simply  by  watching 
and  chasing  vessels  on  the  high  seas  bound  from  Nas 
sau  or  Cuba,  or  by  sinking  in  the  mouths  of  harbors, 
contrary  to  the  laws  of  nations,  obstructions  that  might 
permanently  injure  them  ;  (2)  the  great  advantages  to 
each  nation  of  mutual  trade  ;  and  (3)  the  certainty  that 
the  South  could  never  be  subdued  and  forced  into  the 
Union, — a  fact  that  should  be  sufficiently  evident  from 
the  continued  reverses  suffered  by  Federal  armies  in 


THE  CONFEDEBATE  COMMISSIOSTEBS    281 

their  unhallowed  career  of  conquest.  Occasionally,  as 
in  a  dispatch1  of  December  llth,  some  variation  is 
ventured  upon  this  basic  argument ;  but  there  is  never 
the  suggestion  of  any  larger  reward  than  virtue's  for 
British  recognition.  Thus,  in  the  dispatch  referred  to, 
after  an  able  discussion  of  the  possible  trade  relations 
in  view  of  peace,  of  which  he  is  sanguine  in  anticipa 
tion  of  the  great  victory  for  which  Lee  was  then  pre 
paring  at  Fredericksburg,  Benjamin  instructs  Mason 
to  see  what  might  be  done  even  to  secure  action  that 
could  be  construed  into  recognition  or  that  might  lead 
to  intervention. 

Many  applications  were  at  this  time  being  made, 
so  Mason  had  written,  for  permission  to  buy  and  ex 
port  cotton  from  the  Confederacy,  and  as  he  was  not 
thoroughly  informed  of  existing  conditions  and  possi 
ble  change  of  policy,  he  desired  instructions.  Ben 
jamin  advised  him  that  the  policy  of  the  government 
would  be,  of  course,  to  favor  cotton  exportation  where 
there  was  some  security  that  it  would  go  to  a 
neutral  and  not  to  a  Yankee  port.  Moreover,  as  re 
gards  the  fear  entertained  by  foreign  merchants 
that  the  Confederate  authorities  would  themselves 
destroy  cotton  which  was  the  property  of  neutrals, 
when  in  danger  of  falling  into  Federal  hands,  as 
had  been  done  at  New  Orleans  and  at  scores  of  other 
places,  the  Southern  leaders  could  offer  but  this :  if 
neutral  governments  will  protect  cotton  belonging  to 
their  subjects  and  held  in  the  Confederacy  awaiting  ex 
port,  preventing  its  confiscation  or  destruction  by  the 
forces  of  the  United  States,  the  Confederate  govern 
ment  will  likewise  agree  to  respect  such  property  of 

1  Pickett  Papers ;  see  Mason,  pp.  359-367. 


282  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

neutrals,  and  to  protect  it ;  if,  however,  no  such  assur 
ance  be  given,  the  Confederate  government  must  con 
tinue  its  policy  of  destruction  in  order  to  prevent  cot 
ton  from  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  Of 
course,  the  assumption  of  any  such  position  by  Eng 
land  or  France  would  have  been  a  long  step  toward 
intervention  ;  and  the  dissemination  of  the  proposal 
among  the  English  spinners  would  bring  a  fresh  crop 
of  pro-Southern  sentiment,  and  increase  the  popular 
pressure  on  the  ministry.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Ben 
jamin's  suggestion  did  have  its  effect,  for  Lyons,  the 
British  Minister  at  Washington,  and  Mercier,  the 
French  Minister,  made  some  tentative  approaches  to 
the  subject  of  protection  for  neutral  cotton  and  tobacco ; 
but  Lincoln  and  Seward  perceived  too  readily  whither 
this  tended. 

Here  we  may  halt  in  the  pursuit  of  the  policy 
adopted  toward  England,  which  as  yet  had  been 
chiefly  fruitful  of  vexation  and  hopes  deferred,  to  con 
sider  what  had  been  done  with  the  other  great  Eu 
ropean  nation  to  which  the  Confederacy  turned  with 
some  hope  of  a  hearing  for  its  cause. 


CHAPTER  XI 

DIPLOMATIC  RELATIONS  WITH  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND 

WE  have  seen  that  Slidell  estimated  and  reported 
with  accuracy  the  sentiment  of  the  French  Emperor 
and  his  people.  Benjamin  was,  through  his  frequent 
visits  to  France,  familiar  with  the  nature  of  its  gov 
ernment,  and  had  made  a  shrewd  guess  at  the  true 
character  of  its  ruler.  When,  therefore,  his  impres 
sions  were  confirmed  by  SlidelPs  report,  he  did  not 
hesitate  to  adopt  a  policy  that  promised  the  best  re 
sults.  His  first  dispatches  to  the  envoy  may  be  passed 
over  as  of  no  particular  importance,  or  at  least  not 
different  in  essentials  from  those  to  Mason  already 
mentioned.  The  second,  for  example,  April  8th,1  re 
views  the  blockade  question,  and  comments  on  the  in 
consistency  of  France  and  England  in  recognizing  the 
paper  blockade  of  the  Federals  after  insisting  that  the 
Confederacy  agree  to  the  principle  of  the  law  of  nations 
that  "  blockades  in  order  to  be  binding  must  be  effect 
ive  ;  that  is  to  say,  maintained  by  a  force  sufficient 
really  to  prevent  access  to  the  coast  of  the  enemy." 
But  the  third  dispatch,  April  12th,  is  in  principle,  it 
seems  to  me,  a  complete  abjuration  of  the  Southern 
cotton  heresy,  which  speaks  no  little  for  the  influence 
of  Benjamin  over  Davis  and  for  his  clever  estimate  of 
Louis  Napoleon. 

Omitting  the  earlier  and  more  formal  parts  of  the 

1  Pickett  Papers. 


284  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

document — it  is  one  of  the  few  that  have  been  often 
printed1 — we  find  Benjamin  saying:  "It  is  well  un 
derstood  that  there  exists  at  present  a  temporary  em 
barrassment  in  the  finances  of  France,  which  might 
have  the  effect  of  deterring  that  government  from 
initiating  a  policy  likely  to  superinduce  the  necessity 
for  naval  expeditions.  If  under  these  circumstances 
you  should  after  cautious  inquiry  be  able  to  satisfy 
yourself  that  the  grant  of  a  subsidy  for  defraying  the 
expenses  of  such  expeditions  would  suffice  for  remov 
ing  any  obstacle  to  an  arrangement  or  understanding 
with  the  Emperor,  you  are  at  liberty  to  enter  into  en 
gagements  to  that  effect.  In  such  event  the  agreement 
would  take  the  form  most  advantageous  to  this  country 
by  a  stipulation  to  deliver  on  this  side  a  certain  num 
ber  of  bales  of  cotton  to  be  received  by  the  merchant 
vessels  of  France  at  certain  designated  ports.  In  this 
manner  one  hundred  thousand  bales  of  cotton  of  500 
pounds  each,  costing  this  government  but  $4,500,000 
would  represent  a  grant  to  France  of  not  less  than 
$12,500,000,  or  63,000,000  francs,  if  cotton  be  worth,  as 
we  suppose,  not  less  than  twenty-five  cents  per  pound 
in  Europe.  ...  I  do  not  state  this  sum  as  the 
limit  to  which  you  would  be  authorized  to  go  in 
making  a  negotiation  on  the  subject,  but  to  place 
clearly  before  you  the  advantage  which  would  result 
in  stipulating  for  payment  in  cotton."  The  subsidy, 
therefore,  might  be  even  larger  than  that  suggested ; 
and  the  stipulation  for  payment  in  cotton  was  not  a 
sine  qua  non.  The  offer  was  to  be  made,  primarily,  to 
induce  France  to  raise  the  blockade,  by  armed  inter- 

'See  Bigelow,  p.  176;  of.  Rhodes,  Vol.  IV,  p.  346;  my  citation 
is  from  the  original,  Pickett  Papers ;  cf .  Richardson,  Vol.  II,  p.  229. 


DIPLOMATIC  RELATIONS  285 

vention  if  necessary  ;  but  Slidell  was  given  still  further 
discretion  :  "If  you  find,  then,  that  it  would  be  more 
feasible  to  use  the  discretion  vested  in  you  to  procure 
a  recognition,  than  to  raise  the  blockade,  you  are  to 
consider  yourself  authorized  to  use  the  same  means 1  as 
are  placed  at  your  disposal  for  raising  the  blockade. " 
This  dispatch  was  an  important  triumph  for  the 
Secretary  of  State,  and  a  radical  departure  from  the 
policy  to  which  the  administration,  so  far,  had  seemed 
to  commit  itself.  By  what  arguments  Mr.  Davis  was 
brought  to  assent  to  this  offer  we  can  only  surmise  ; 
but  we  may  feel  assured  that  a  step  so  important  was 
not  taken  without  his  knowledge  and  consent.  By 
what  reasoning  Benjamin  brought  himself  to  see  the 
possible  advantage  of  such  terms  to  France  while  he 
was  offering  England  only  the  ordinary  privileges  of 
trade,  we  can  also  guess.  From  the  reports  of  wide 
sympathy  with  the  Confederate  cause  in  England  he 
was  led  to  believe,  or  confirmed  in  the  belief,  that  the 
British  government,  which  he  knew  to  be  dependent 
on  popular  support,  would  sooner  or  later  yield  to  the 
pressure  of  public  opinion ;  and  from  the  sketch  we 
have  given  of  what  was  taking  place  in  England  it 
may  be  seen  that  his  confidence  was  not  without  justi 
fication.  But  he  knew  that  the  interest  of  the  French 
people  in  cotton  was  not  so  vital,  and  besides,  that 
their  government  was  not  a  democracy,  and  hence 
not  so  immediately  responsive  to  popular  opinion, 
while  the  ambitious  Emperor  for  the  time  controlled 
everything.  To  him,  engaged  in  costly  schemes  that 
might  eventuate  in  war,  and  anxiously  seeking  money 
to  prosecute  them,  such  a  temptation  might  come  as 
1  Italics  in  the  original. 


286  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

decisive.  All  now  hinged  on  the  continued  success  of 
the  Confederate  armies,  and  on  the  skill  with  which 
Slidell  might  use  the  large  powers  entrusted  to  him. 

Events  in  the  Confederacy  at  this  period  have 
already  been  outlined ;  the  one  of  most  significance 
for  the  negotiations  with  France,  and  at  the  same  time 
most  nearly  touching  Benjamin  himself,  was  the  cap 
ture  of  New  Orleans,  the  danger  of  which  began  to  be 
apparent  to  the  Eichmond  authorities  soon  after  this 
dispatch  was  written.  But  while  disquieting  news  was 
coming  from  that  quarter,  Benjamin  was  cheered  by 
a  visit  from  Mercier  ;  for  though  he  declared  his  visit 
strictly  informal  and  was  himself  very  guarded,  it  was 
made  with  the  consent  of  Seward,  and  showed  that  for 
some  reason  France  was  interested  to  learn  something 
of  the  status  of  affairs  at  Eichmond.  Mercier  reported 
to  his  government  that,  having  sailed  to  Norfolk  on  a 
French  vessel  of  war,  and  having  received  permission 
to  go  to  Eichmond  in  a  private  capacity,  he  went  at 
once.1  "  My  first  visit  was  to  Mr.  Benjamin,  Secretary 
of  State,  whom  I  had  known  when  he  represented 
Louisiana  in  the  United  States  Senate.  I  said  to  him 
that  the  purpose  of  my  journey  was  merely  to  assure 
myself,  for  myself,  of  the  true  condition  of  things  ;  and 
that  I  called  to  beg  him  to  aid  me  in  attaining  it.  He 
answered  that  he  would  do  so  with  the  greatest  pleasure, 
and  that  he  would  be  delighted  that  I  should  be  able 
to  penetrate  to  the  truth,  which,  judging  from  all  that 
came  back  to  him  from  the  North,  appeared  to  be  little 
known  there.  I  condense,  M.  le  Ministre,  what  I  heard 
from  the  mouth  of  Mr.  Benjamin,  and  in  conversation 

1  Report  published  in  the  papers ;  see  N.  Y.  Tribune,  Feb.  9, 
1863. 


DIPLOMATIC  BELATIONS  287 

with  others.  i  We  have, '  they  said  to  me,  i  relied  too 
much  on  Europe  and  the  power  of  commercial  in 
terests,  but  are  determined  to  conquer  our  independence 
at  all  hazards.  On  this  point  the  sentiments  of  our 
people  are  unanimous.  They  have  already  suffered 
much,  but  they  will  endure  far  more,  if  necessary,  to 
accomplish  their  object.  We  do  not  disguise  from 
ourselves  that  the  Federals  possess  infinitely  superior 
resources,  and  the  command  of  the  ocean ;  that  they 
may  in  the  long  run  make  themselves  masters  of  our 
ports.  But  in  capturing  our  cities  they  will  find  only 
women,  old  men,  and  children.  The  whole  population 
capable  of  bearing  arms  will  withdraw  into  the  in 
terior,  beyond  the  reach  of  gunboats,  and  in  presence 
of  such  a  resistance,  the  North  will  be  obliged  to 
yield.  .  .  .  We  can,  if  absolutely  necessary,  de 
fend  ourselves,  but  the  North  cannot  attack  us  without 
money.  On  the  other  hand,  we  will  not  hesitate  an 
instant  to  burn  our  cotton  and  our  tobacco,  rather  than 
permit  them  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy. '  I 
have  seen  here  all  the  most  important  personages. 
All  have  held  the  same  language  and  have  expressed 
the  same  sentiments.  Nevertheless,  among  those  per 
sons  several  are  known  for  the  moderation  of  their 
character  and  for  the  resistance  that  they  opposed  at 
the  outset  to  the  movement  of  secession.  ...  I 
see  many  reasons  for  not  calling  in  question  their  pro 
found  sincerity  at  this  moment." 

One  proof  of  their  sincerity,  most  annoying  to 
Mercier,  he  found  in  the  willingness  of  the  Confederates 
to  burn  their  cotton  rather  than  have  it  fall  into  the 
hands  of  the  Federals.  And,  indeed,  the  whole  tone 
of  the  dispatch,  as  well  as  others  that  he  was  writ- 


288  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

ing  at  this  time,  was  favorable  to  the  South ;  he 
might  almost  as  well  have  said,  in  plain  speech,  that 
the  spirit  of  resistance  there  was  indomitable,  and 
capable  of  inspiring  to  years  of  patriotic  sacrifice 
and  suffering ;  that,  therefore,  the  revolution  would 
succeed,  and  the  Emperor  might  merely  use  his  own 
discretion  as  to  when  he  would  stay  the  arm  of  the 
North  in  its  useless  shedding  of  blood  and  destruction 
of  property. 

The  substance  of  Mercier' s  interview  with  Benjamin 
was  immediately  published,  though  the  formal  dis 
patch  from  which  we  have  quoted  was  not,  of  course, 
yet  made  public  when  Benjamin  wrote  to  Slidell l  that 
"  the  result  of  this  conversation  has  been  very  fairly 
stated  by  him."  If  he  could  have  read  the  text  of  the 
Frenchman's  dispatch,  his  expressions  of  approval 
Would  have  been  stronger.  Surely,  the  thing  could 
hardly  have  been  better  for  the  South  if  Benjamin 
himself  had  written  it,  instead  of  merely  injecting  it 
into  Mercier.  Parts  of  what  the  French  minister  wrote 
sound  almost  like  quotations  from  Benjamin,  and  we 
have  no  hesitation  in  declaring  that  in  the  long  and 
intimate  conversation  between  the  two,  the  latter  suc 
cessfully  exerted  his  powers  of  influencing  the  mind  of 
his  hearer  with  such  a  calm  and  well-reasoned  state 
ment  of  the  Southern  cause  as  carried  conviction  and 
left  an  impression  not  to  be  effaced  or  replaced  by  any 
thing  he  might  afterward  see  or  hear.  Though  Ben 
jamin,  in  reporting  the  interview  to  Slidell,  does  not 
express  any  elation  whatever,  he  was  doubtless 
aware  of  the  favorable  effect  he  had  created  upon 
Mercier,  and  of  the  good  influence  this  might  have  on 

1  Pickett  Papers  ;  see  also  Mason,  p.  297. 


DIPLOMATIC  EELATIONS  289 

the  negotiations  with  France.  He  told  Slidell :  "  In 
the  course  of  conversation  he  [Mercier]  remarked  that 
it  would  be  a  matter  of  infinite  gratification  to  himself 
personally  as  well  as  to  his  government  if  his  good 
offices  could  be  interposed  in  any  way  to  restore  peace, 
and  said  that  the  only  possible  solution  he  saw,  was 
political  independence  combined  with  commercial  union. 
But,  he  continued,  '  how  can  anybody  talk  to  either 
side  *?  I  dare  not  utter  to  you  a  single  sentence  that 
does  not  begin  with  the  word  independence,  nor  can  I  say 
a  syllable  to  the  other  side  on  any  other  basis  than 
union.''  "  This  dispatch  concludes  in  very  sanguine 
temper,  and  was  designed  to  strengthen,  as  it  should, 
SlidelFs  hand  in  the  use  of  his  offer  of  a  subsidy  : 
"You  will  spare  no  effort  to  avail  yourself  of  the 
favorable  opportunity  presented  by  our  recent  suc 
cesses  in  urging  our  right  to  recognition.  We  ask  for 
no  mediation,  no  intervention,  no  aid.  We  simply  insist 
on  the  acknowledgment  of  a  fact  patent  to  mankind." 
Having  thus  ordered  his  forces  for  a  vigorous  assault 
upon  the  already  wavering  Louis  Napoleon,  the  Secre 
tary  of  State  was  compelled  to  wait  through  the  anxious 
months  till  he  could  learn  what  fortune  had  befallen 
Slidell ;  and  meanwhile  untoward  events  would  come 
to  disturb  his  plans.  We  have  referred  before  to  the 
delays  and  hazards  of  communication  between  the 
Confederate  government  and  its  foreign  emissaries, 
and  perhaps  it  would  be  well  to  consider,  without 
needless  detail,  these  and  other  difficulties  that  embar 
rassed  the  Secretary  of  State  in  particular.  In  spite  of 
the  fact  that  the  blockade,  at  ports  like  Wilming 
ton,  was  run  with  such  frequency  and  safety  as  to 
establish  almost  regular  intercourse  with  Nassau,  Ber- 


290  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

muda,  or  Havana,  the  vessels  were  not  government 
vessels,  and  could  hardly  be  considered  trustworthy 
bearers  of  dispatches,  unless  some  special  passenger 
could  be  charged  with  the  duty  of  transmission.  The 
dispatches,  then,  were  often  entrusted  to  private  per 
sons  l  for  conveyance  either  within  the  Federal  lines, 
or  to  some  foreign  port,  whence  they  might  be  for 
warded,  under  various  disguises  if  necessary,  to  their 
proper  destinations.  Until  definite  arrangements  were 
completed  for  the  sending  of  the  dispatches  from 
Mason  and  Slidell  to  Helm  at  Havana,  Walker  at  Ber 
muda,  or  Heyliger  at  Nassau,  and  thence  through  the 
blockade  at  some  convenient  point,  those  coming 
from  the  commissioners,  and  from  Slidell  in  particu 
lar,  were  frequently  long  delayed.  Of  Benjamin's  dis 
patches  to  them,  not  a  few,  entrusted  to  persons  who 
were  either  not  zealous  or  not  cautious,  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  enemy,  the  bearers  having  neglected  to 
destroy  them  when  they  themselves  were  captured. 
This  might  prove  not  only  seriously  embarrassing,  but 
even  disastrous,  should  secrets  of  real  importance  be 
contained  in  them.  And  the  excited  editors,  always 
filled  with  vehement  suspicion  of  the  government  in 
general  and  of  Benjamin  in  particular,  often,  as  we 
may  have  occasion  to  notice,  held  him  as  culpable 
as  the  careless  messengers.  Fair  samples  of  the 
most  exasperating  delays  at  important  crises,  when 
it  was  vitally  necessary  that  the  secretary  who  was 
directing  foreign  policy  should  have  authentic  offi- 

1  Mrs.  Davis  writes  me  (Oct.  12,  1904)  :  "For  purposes  of  defy 
ing  the  interception  of  dispatches  from  abroad,  the  French  diplo 
matic  letters  were  dictated  to  Rosine  Slidell  by  her  father,  and 
they  were  addressed  to  me  under  a  feigned  and  prearranged  name. ' ' 


DIPLOMATIC  BELATIONS  291 

cial  reports  from  his  ministers,  are  not  far  to 
seek.  Benjamin's  dispatch  No.  6,  to  Slidel!,1  dated 
September  26,  1862,  was  one  of  those  captured.  It 
opens:  "Sir:  Since  my  No.  5,  of  the  19th  of  July, 
I  am  without  any  communication  from  you,  with  the 
exception  of  your  No.  2,  of  the  26th  of  February  last, 
which  was  brought  to  the  department  on  the  26th  of 
this  month  by  Mr.  Chamberlyn,  to  whom  you  had 
entrusted  it.  This  gentleman  has  thus  consumed  seven 
months  in  discharging  the  trust  confided  to  him.  Your 
numbers  3,  4,  5  and  6  are  still  missing."  The  dispatch 
chiefly  confines  itself  to  a  relation  of  Lee's  campaign 
against  Pope  and  against  McClellau  in  Maryland  from 
the  Confederate  point  of  view,  and  so  through  its  pub 
lication  no  important  secrets  were  revealed  ;  but  what 
a  painful  revelation  it  is  that  Benjamin  has  had  to 
direct,  or  attempt  to  direct,  Slidell's  dealings  with  the 
French  Emperor,  while  himself  absolutely  in  the  dark, 
as  far  as  reliable  information  is  concerned,  regarding 
what  has  happened  to  that  minister,  what  has  been 
his  reception,  what  he  has  done  toward  securing 
recognition,  during  all  these  eventful  and  most  anx 
ious  months  of  the  spring  and  summer  of  1862.  Things 
were  never  again  quite  so  bad  as  this  ;  still,  in  a  dis 
patch  of  October  30th,  we  find  Benjamin  regretting 
"that  none  of  the  letters  of  Mrs.  Slidell  for  Mrs.  Davis, 
announced  in  your  private  letter  to  the  President,  have 
ever  been  received.  I  may  add  that  the  date  of  the 
last  letter  received  by  me  from  my  own  family  [i.  e.,  his 
wife,  in  France]  is  the  tenth  of  May."  At  Slidell's 
end,  too,  there  were  sometimes  delays,  vexatious,  dan- 

1  Pickett  Papers;  cf.  in  general  Callahau,  pp.  51,  97;   dispatch 
published  in  N.  Y.  Times,  Jan.  18,  1863. 


292  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

gerous,  or  costly,  as  the  case  might  be ;  thus  the  first 
sentence  of  his  dispatch  written  on  December  27,  1862, 
and  received  by  Benjamin  on  February  27,  1863,  in 
formed  the  Secretary  of  State  that  he  was  "  without 
any  dispatch  from  you  later  than  15th  April."  More 
than  eight  months  without  instructions !  It  is  fortu 
nate  that  the  most  important  advices  had  been 
sent  before  April  15th ;  fortunate,  too,  that  Slidell 
was  discreet  and  able  enough  to  act  judiciously  even 
without  further  instructions.  This  case,  however,  is, 
I  believe,  the  worst ;  as  a  rule,  communication  within 
three  months  could  be  relied  on — incredibly  good,  and 
much  to  be  thankful  for,  in  view  of  the  conditions  we 
have  noted,  yet  truly  disheartening  when  we  remem 
ber  that  these  things  took  place  not  a  century  ago,  in 
the  days  of  clumsy  sailing  ships,  but  in  the  full  tide 
of  the  age  of  steam. 

Associated  with  this  difficulty  of  communication 
with  the  outside  world,  and  not  a  little  conditioned  by 
it,  were  other  petty  hindrances  and  embarrassments 
that  hedged  about  Mr.  Benjamin.  For  knowledge  of 
current  events  in  the  great  world,  absolutely  indis 
pensable  to  one  who  would  give  intelligent  direction 
to  affairs  of  state,  he  was  largely  dependent  on  North 
ern  or  on  foreign  newspapers,  since  the  press  of  the 
South  was  suffering  from  the  same  stoppage  of  com 
munication  as  he ;  and  these  outside  sources  of  in 
formation  might  well  be  regarded  with  suspicion,  some 
times  of  ignorance,  sometimes  of  partisan  bias  and  de 
liberate  intent  to  deceive.  Those  who  imagine  "yel 
low  journalism.'7  a  disease  of  these  latter  days  are 
much  in  error ;  the  thing,  if  not  the  name,  was  cer 
tainly  distressingly  prevalent  during  the  Civil  War, 


DIPLOMATIC  KELATIONS  293 

as  a  glance  at  contemporary  newspapers  would  suffice 
to  show.  A  mild  case  indeed,  and  that  in  a  journal 
which  one  would  have  thought  proof  against  it,  is 
familiar  :  Horace  Greeley's  New  York  Tribune,  with 
its  flaring  headlines  proclaiming  the  "  Prayer  of 
Twenty  Millions"  for  an  immediate  emancipation, ' 
which  was  certainly  far  from  being  the  prayer  of  any 
such  number  of  the  Northern  people  at  the  time,  and 
which  was  designed  to  hurry  the  President  into  action 
that  would  then  almost  certainly  have  been  rash  and 
impolitic.  This,  purposely  selected  as  a  mild  in 
stance,  is  the  type  of  newspaper  exaggerations  and 
misrepresentations  against  which  Benjamin  had  to  be 
on  his  guard  in  making  deductions  from  the  Northern 
press.  The  more  important  and  representative  news 
papers  were  kept  on  file. 

"The  State  Department,"  says  Assistant  Secretary 
Washington, a  l  i  had  frequent  copies  of  the  New  York 
papers  ;  but  the  secretary  did  not  depend  on  them  for 
foreign  intelligence.  The  London  Times,  Daily  Tele 
graph,  and  other  London  journals,  besides  the  maga 
zines,  were  regularly  received  at  the  department  and 
most  carefully  scanned,  especially  the  debates  in  Par 
liament."  "  I  have  long  been  in  receipt  at  the  depart 
ment  of  the  Times,  the  Saturday  Review,  Economist,  and 
Examiner,  as  well  as  of  the  principal  quarterly  reviews, 
and  Blackivood"1  s  Magazine,"  writes  Benjamin  to  Ma 
son  ;  and  continues:  "The  most  striking  articles 
from  the  Herald,  Post,  and  other  London  dailies  are 
cut  out  and  forwarded  by  Mr.  Hotze."  3  The  libraries 

1  Aug.  20,  1862.  9  Lawley  MS. 

'Mason,  p.  472,  dated  April  18,  1864;  of.  pp.  418,  445,  463, 
468,  etc. 


294  JTJDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

at  Bichmond  being  utterly  inadequate,  Mr.  Mason 
was  commissioned  to  purchase  and  send  forward  books 
that  would  prove  helpful,  especially  works  on  inter 
national  law  and  Hansard's  Debates,  which  were  at 
last  and  after  great  difficulties  safely  received.  "  Mr. 
Benjamin's  studies  and  training,"  continues  Mr.  Wash 
ington,  i  i  especially  fitted  him  for  [his]  position.  He 
had  a  thorough  acquaintance  with  history,  with  both 
the  common  and  the  civil  law,  with  international  law 
and  modern  precedents,  with  the  classics,  ancient  and 
modern  ;  the  French  language  and  general  literature  ; 
and  with  the  commerce,  institutions,  and  political  con 
ditions  of  foreign  states.  He  was,  indeed,  a  citizen  of 
Louisiana,  but  yet  far  more  a  cosmopolitan.  .  .  . 
He  was  always  a  student  and  he  kept  up  his  habit  of 
reading.  One  work  that  he  read  with  much  care  and 
pleasure  at  this  time  was  Sir  Eobert  Philliniore' s  then 
recent  work  on  international  law. ' '  There  was  need 
of  a  man  of  wide  reading  and  shrewd  judgment  to  keep 
up  an  intelligent  acquaintance  with  the  affairs  of  the 
world  under  conditions  such  as  those  we  have  given. 

Before  Benjamin  could  hear  what  effect  had  been  pro 
duced  upon  Louis  Napoleon  by  his  offer  of  a  subsidy, 
there  occurred  some  little  things  within  his  ken  that, 
not  unnaturally,  filled  him  with  suspicion.  With 
these  affairs  we  shall  deal  briefly  before  attempting  to 
picture  more  carefully  the  course  of  policy  pursued  by 
Slidell.  The  essential  facts  in  the  case  are  presented 
in  a  dispatch  from  Benjamin  to  Slidell,  dated  October 

17,  1862  ;  this  was  one  of  those  captured  by  the  Fed 
erals,  and  extensively  circulated  in  Northern  newspa 
pers — for  example,  in  the  New  York  Times  of  January 

18,  1863. 


DIPLOMATIC  EELATIONS  295 

M.  B.  Theron,  the  consular  agent  of  France  and 
Spain  at  Galveston,  had  written  to  the  governor  of 
Texas,  on  August  18th  :  t  i  Will  you  be  kind  enough 
to  inform  me  confidentially  of  your  personal  opinion  on 
the  following  questions : 

"  1.  The  annexation  of  the  Eepublic  of  Texas  to 
the  United  States,  was  or  was  not  a  good  political 
measure  f 

"  2.  The  act  of  disunion  and  of  the  junction  of  the 
state  of  Texas  to  the  Southern  States,  was  or  was  not 
another  good  or  bad  politic  taken  by  the  state  ? 

"3.  The  reestablishment  of  the  old  Eepublic  of 
Texas  will  or  will  not  be  beneficial  to  our  beloved 
adopted  country  I 

"  Your  answer  to  these  questions,  sir,  will  serve  me 
as  a  guide  in  my  political  correspondence  with  the 
governments  which  I  have  the  honor  to  represent. " 

To  this  astonishing  document  Governor  Lubbock 
answered  with  decision  :  "  Permit  me  to  say  that  the 
annexation  of  Texas  to  the  United  States  was  a  good 
political  measure.  As  to  your  second  question,  I 
answer  most  emphatically  that  'the  act  of  disunion 
and  of  the  junction  of  the  state  of  Texas  to  the  South 
ern  States J  was  a  good  and  proper  political  step.  In 
reply  to  your  third  inquiry,  I  have  to  say  that  the 
reestablishment  of  the  old  Eepublic  of  Texas  will  not 
be  beneficial  to  our  beloved  adopted  country." 

Questions  and  answers,  moreover,  were  forthwith  sent 
to  President  Davis  by  the  governor,  creating  no  little 
perturbation  in  the  mind  of  the  Secretary  of  State. 
The  mere  questions  from  such  a  source,  to  acquire  in 
formation  that  might  be  "  a  guide  in  political  cor 
respondence  with"  France  and  Spain,  were  of  them- 


296  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

selves  enough  to  arouse  suspicion.  Besides  there  were 
special  facts  known  to  Benjamin  that  further  alarmed 
him ;  and  while  he  and  Davis  were  discussing  this 
thing,  a  bit  of  apparently  circumstantial  evidence  came 
to  confirm  their  fears  of  a  French  intrigue.  Senator 
Oldham,  of  Texas,  wrote  a  rather  long  letter  to  Mr. 
Davis,  the  substance  of  which  was  that  M.  Tabouelle, 
vice-consul  of  France  at  Richmond,  had,  in  a  con 
versation  with  him,  made  careful  inquiries  as  to  the 
resources  of  Texas,  and  suggested  the  possibility  of  her 
"  supporting  a  powerful  and  independent  people,  and 
asked  [him]  whether  [he]  thought  it  would  not  be  to 
the  interest  of  the  state  to  assume  an  independent  na 
tionality."  Considering  that  there  had  yet  been  little 
news  from  Slidell,  and  none  but  of  old  date ;  that 
Napoleon  " the  Little'7  was  known  to  be  emulous  of 
the  great  uncle,  and  would  probably  enjoy  a  chance  to 
recover  part  of  what  had  once  been  considered  Louisi 
ana  ;  that  he  was,  moreover,  just  at  this  moment  known 
to  be  bent  on  some  scheme  that  would  establish  French 
influence  over  Mexico  ;  and  considering  that  Benjamin 
knew  how  traditional  French  policy  had  favored  the 
independence  of  Texas  in  1846,  it  is  hardly  to  be 
wondered  at  that  he  penned  a  dispatch  to  the  commis 
sioners  filled  with  grave  suspicions.  Benjamin  wrote 
to  Slidell : 

1  i  In  plain  language,  we  feel  authorized  to  infer  that 
the  French  government  has,  for  some  interest  of  its 
own,  instructed  some  of  its  consular  agents  here  to  feel 
the  way,  and  if  possible  to  provoke  some  movement 
on  the  part  of  the  state  of  Texas  which  shall  result 
in  its  withdrawal  from  the  Confederacy.  It  is  diffi 
cult,  if  not  impossible,  on  any  other  hypothesis,  to 
account  for  the  conduct  of  these  agents.  .  .  . 


DIPLOMATIC  BELATIOKS  297 

"In  endeavoring  to  account  for  such  a  course  of 
action  on  the  part  of  the  French  government,  I  can 
only  attribute  it  to  one  or  both  of  the  following  causes  : 

1.  The  Emperor  of  the  French  has  determined  to  con 
quer  and  hold  Mexico  as  a  colony,  and  is  desirous  of 
interposing  a  weak  power  between  his  new  colony  and 
the  Confederate  States,  in  order  that  he  may  feel  secure 
against  any  interference  with  his  designs  in  Mexico. 

2.  The  French  government  is  desirous  of  securing  for 
itself  an  independent  source  of  cotton  supply,  to  offset 
that  possessed  by  Great  Britain  in  India,  and  designs 
to  effect  this  purpose  by  taking  under  its  protection 
the  state  of  Texas,  which,  after  being  acknowledged  as 
an  independent  republic,  would,  in  its  opinion,  be  in 
effect  as  dependent  on  France,  and  as  subservient  to 
French  interests  as  if  a  French  colony.     .     .     . 

"One  other  suggestion  occurs  to  me,  which  you 
may  receive  as  purely  conjectural  on  my  part.  It  is 
known  to  me  personally  that  at  the  date  of  the  annex 
ation  of  Texas  to  the  United  States,  Mr.  Dubois  de 
Saligny,  the  present  French  minister  in  Mexico,  and 
who  was  at  that  time  French  charge  d'affaires  to  the 
republic  of  Texas,  was  vehemently  opposed  to  the 
annexation,  and  was  active  in  endeavoring  to  obstruct 
and  prevent  it.  Even  at  that  date  the  dispatches  of 
Mr.  Guizot,  which  I  have  had  an  opportunity  of  reading, 
were  filled  with  arguments  to  show  that  the  interests 
of  Texas  were  identical  with  those  of  France,  and  that 
both  would  be  promoted  by  the  maintenance  of  a  sepa 
rate  nationality  in  Texas.  The  intrigue  now  on  foot, 
therefore,  accords  completely  with  a  policy  in  regard 
to  Texas  that  may  be  almost  said  to  be  traditional 
with  France ;  and  it  is  not  impossible  that  the  move 
ment  of  the  consular  agents  here  has  received  its  first 
impulse  from  the  French  legation  in  Mexico,  instead 
of  the  cabinet  of  the  Tuileries.  .  .  . 

"An  enlarged  and  generous  statesmanship  would 
seem  to  indicate  so  clearly  that  the  establishment  of 
Southern  independence  on  a  secure  basis  (and  with  a 


298  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

strength  sufficient  to  counterbalance  the  power  of  the 
United  States,  as  well  as  to  prevent  extensive  French 
colonization  on  our  Southern  border)  would  promote 
the  true  interests  of  Great  Britain,  that  we  find  it  dif 
ficult  to  account  for  her  persistent  refusal  to  recognize 
our  independence.  The  knowledge  of  a  secret  attempt 
on  the  part  of  France  to  obtain  separate  advantages  of 
such  vast  magnitude  may  perhaps  induce  a  change 
in  the  views  of  the  British  cabinet.  ...  If  you 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  these  conjectures  are  well 
founded,  you  are  at  liberty  to  make  known  to  Her 
Majesty's  government  the  facts  herein  communicated, 
either  through  the  British  minister  at  Paris,  or  by 
concert  with  Mr.  Mason." 


In  a  postscript,  written  three  days  later,  Benjamin 
informs  Slidell  that  he  has  become  convinced  that 
M.  Tabouelle  was  not  acting  in  concert  with  M.  Theron, 
nor  was  in  any  way  a  party  to  the  suspected  intrigue  ; 
hence  the  order  for  his  expulsion  from  the  Confed 
eracy,  which  had  accompanied  a  similar  order  for  the 
expulsion  of  M.  Theron,  had  been  revoked.  "It  is 
barely  possible,"  he  continues,  "  though  I  think  not 
probable,  that  Theron  may  have  acted  on  his  own 
ideas  of  what  he  supposed  would  be  agreeable  to  his 
superiors,  and  not  in  consequence  of  instructions.  The 
whole  matter  is  one  of  great  delicacy,  and  I  must  leave 
it  to  your  own  discretion  how  best  to  treat  it,  after 
endeavoring  to  satisfy  yourself  whether  Theron' s  move 
ments  were  dictated  by  the  French  cabinet." 

The  revelation  of  Benjamin's  mistrust  by  the  cap 
ture  of  this  dispatch  would,  of  course,  quite  spoil  the 
French  designs,  if  any,  and  necessitate  a  denial  of 
their  bare  existence.  So  things  turned  out ;  and  then, 
the  possible  danger  being  gone  by,  Benjamin's  suspi- 


DIPLOMATIC  KELATIONS  299 

cions  could  be  made  to  appear  unjust,  his  fears  exag 
gerated  and  ridiculous,  his  excitement  that  of  one  who 
has  found  a  mare's  nest.  Nevertheless,  this  has  always 
seemed  to  me  a  well- written  dispatch,  and  one  justi 
fied  by  the  facts  as  they  appeared  to  him.  Indeed, 
it  has  not  yet  been  shown  that  there  were  no  grounds 
for  his  doubts  of  Louis  Napoleon,  and  that  he  did  not 
make  a  very  shrewd  guess  at  the  true  state  of  affairs. ' 
Certainly,  the  dealings  of  the  Emperor  with  Slidell, 
which  we  must  now  take  up,  were  such  as  to  show  him 
"for  crooked  counsels  fit.'7 

On  April  14th,  Slidell  had  written  the  Secretary  of 
State  a  detailed  account  of  the  interview  between  the 
Emperor  and  Mr.  Lindsay,  a  member  of  the  British 
Parliament,  in  regard  to  Southern  affairs.  Lindsay 
and  Eoebuck  were  among  the  most  persistent  cham 
pions  of  the  South  in  Parliament,  and  the  former  now 
presented  the  cause  to  the  Emperor  most  urgently, 
hoping  to  elicit  from  him  at  least  an  expression  of 
opinion,  perhaps  also  something  more  definite.  In 
the  first  interview,  April  llth,  Napoleon  had  expressed 
his  earnest  desire  to  see  the  war  ended,  and  stated  that 
his  government  had  twice  made  representations  to 
that  effect  to  the  British  government,  but  had  received 
no  definite  response;  such  being  the  case,  "  he  could 
not  again  address  the  English  ministry  through  the 
official  channels  without  some  reason  to  believe  that 
his  representations  would  receive  a  favorable  response  ; 
.  .  .  that  he  was  prepared  to  act  promptly  and  de 
cidedly  ;  that  he  would  at  once  dispatch  a  formidable 
fleet  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  if  England  would 

1  See  Rhodes,  Vol.  IV,  p.  346,  for  similar  suspicions  on  the  part 
of  Adams. 


300  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

send  an  equal  force  j  that  they  would  demand  free 
egress  and  ingress  for  their  merchantmen." 

In  his  conviction  that  the  Union  could  never  be  re 
stored,  he  authorized  Lindsay  to  report  the  substance 
of  this  conversation  to  Lord  Cowley,  British  ambas 
sador  at  Paris.  Lindsay  having  seen  Lord  Cowley, 
and  having  ascertained  that  he  was  of  the  opinion 
that  the  proper  time  for  intervention  had  passed,  had 
another  interview  with  Napoleon,  and  was  urged  to 
see  Lords  Eussell  and  Palmerston  on  his  return  to 
England,  and  communicate  to  them  what  had  been 
discussed ;  nay,  it  was  even  suggested  that  he  see 
Lord  Derby  and  Disraeli,  leaders  of  the  opposition. 
It  would  not  be  proper,  of  course,  for  the  Emperor  to 
hold  communication  with  them,  but  Lindsay  might 
let  them  know  what  the  former's  views  were.  Mr. 
Lindsay,  become  a  confidential  diplomat,  was  rather 
offended  when  Lord  Eussell,  in  reply  to  a  note  stating 
that  the  writer  was  charged  with  an  important  mes 
sage  from  Napoleon,  declined  to  receive  any  com 
munication  from  a  foreign  power  except  through  the 
regular  channels.  He  saw  Disraeli,  however,  who 
"  fully  concurred  in  the  views  of  the  Eniperor,"  and 
added  that,  "if  France  would  take  the  initiative,  any 
course  she  might  adopt  to  put  an  end  to  the  present 
state  of  American  affairs,  would  be  undoubtedly  sup 
ported  by  a  large  majority  in  Parliament,  and  know 
ing  this,  Lord  Eussell  would  give  a  reluctant  assent, 
to  avoid  what  would  otherwise  certainly  follow :  a 
change  of  ministry."  These  things  Mr.  Lindsay  dis 
cussed  with  the  Emperor  in  another  interview,  on 
April  18th,  of  which  Slidell  wrote  again,  on  the  same 
date.  Napoleon  seemed  even  more  favorably  disposed 


DIPLOMATIC  KELATIONS  301 

than  before,  said  Lindsay,  and  thoroughly  displeased 
by  the  inaction  of  the  English  authorities,  his  own 
impulse  being  to  make  a  friendly  appeal  to  the  Federal 
government,  and  to  accompany  the  appeal,  if  neces 
sary,  with  a  demonstration  of  force,  to  open  the  ports. 
"The  taking  of  New  Orleans,  which  he  did  not  antic 
ipate,  might  render  it  inexpedient  to  act,"  said  the 
Emperor;  "he  would  not  decide  at  once,  but  would 
wait  for  some  days  for  further  intelligence." 

Before  Slidell  had  anything  more  of  importance  to 
say  in  his  dispatches  to  Benjamin,  there  came  the  news 
of  the  fall  of  that  city.  The  large  French  element 
in  the  population,  more  considerable  in  its  proportions 
then  than  now,  the  extensive  and  almost  intimate  re 
lations  in  trade  and  even  in  social  intercourse  still  kept 
up  between  the  Creoles  and  the  old  country,  as  well  as 
the  sentiment  that  could  so  easily  be  roused  in  behalf 
of  this  lost  child  of  France, — all  these  things  had  been 
of  weight  in  influencing  Napoleon,  if  he  should  make 
any  attempt  to  raise  the  blockade,  to  do  so  for  the 
benefit  of  New  Orleans.  Now  there  was  neither  need 
nor  excuse  for  that  demonstration  in  force  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Mississippi ;  for  Seward  was  assuring  Mercier 
that  the  blockade  there  was  over,  and  that  the  port 
would  be  opened  with  only  such  delay  as  formality 
might  necessitate.  Nevertheless,  the  good  intentions 
of  the  French  Emperor  seemed  still  assured,  and  still 
persisted  in,  though  a  new  excuse  for  action  must  now 
be  found,  if  he  ventured  to  move  independently  of 
England. 

Slidell  wrote  another  encouraging  dispatch  on  July 
25th,  giving  an  account  of  his  own  long  interview  with 
Napoleon,  on  the  16th  of  that  month,  and  with 


302  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

Thouvenel  on  the  23d.1  It  was  at  this  time  that,  as 
soon  as  the  turn  of  the  conversation  presented  a 
favorable  opportunity,  Slidell  first  spoke  of  the  cotton 
subsidy:  "I  then  stated  to  the  Emperor  what  I  had 
been  instructed  to  propose.  It  did  not  seem  disagree 
able.  He  said,  how  am  I  to  get  the  cotton  ?  I  replied, 
of  course  that  depends  on  Your  Majesty  ;  he  will  soon 
have  a  fleet  in  the  neighborhood  of  our  coast  strong 
enough  to  keep  it  clear  of  every  Federal  cruiser  "— 
this  latter  being  in  reference  to  the  Mexican  expedi 
tion.  "When  speaking  of  the  cotton  subsidy,"  con 
tinues  Slidell,  i  i  I  told  the  Emperor  that  the  proposition 
was  made  exclusively  to  France,  my  colleague  at 
London  not  being  aware  of  my  authority  to  make  it." 
The  exact  terms  of  the  offer  are  not  given,  since  the 
whole  affair  was  rather  of  the  nature  of  friendly  con 
versation  at  a  private  audience  than  a  deliberate  ap 
plication  for  the  aid  of  France  ;  but  the  suggestion  was 
presented  to  the  Emperor,  in  the  hope  that  he  would 
think  it  over  and  discuss  it  with  his  ministers,  to 
whom  a  more  formal  approach  would  then  be  made. 
Accordingly,  one  week  later,  when  Slidell  conceived 
that  sufficient  time  had  elapsed  for  this  to  percolate 
through  official  channels  from  the  Emperor,  he  sought 
an  interview  with  Thouvenel,  Minister  for  Foreign  Af 
fairs,  and  made  a  definite  proposition,  which  seemed 
to  interest  the  latter  very  much.  After  discussing 
the  proffered  advantages  to  France,  "  as  I  was  taking 
leave,  M.  Thouvenel  asked  me  to  give  him  a  brief 

1  Keferences,  unless  when  otherwise  stated,  are  to  my  own  notes 
from  the  Pickett  Papers ;  but  on  Slidell 's  interview,  cf.  Callahan, 
p.  151,  et  seq.  ;  Bigelow,  p.  116,  et  seq.  ;  and  Eichardson,  Vol.  II,  pp. 
270-272,  288,  etc. 


DIPLOMATIC  BELATIONS  303 

written  memorandum  of  the  propositions,  in  confi 
dence,  for  his  own  use  and  that  of  the  Emperor.  I 
sent  him  one  unsigned,  copy  of  which  you  will  find 
herewith.  .  .  .  He  asked  me  if  any  similar  propo 
sitions  had  been  or  would  be  made  to  England.  I  re 
plied,  'Certainly  not'  ;  that  our  commissioner  there 
was  ignorant  of  them,  although  I  intended  to  give  him 
the  information  as  soon  as  I  found  a  safe  opportunity. " 

The  memorandum  submitted  to  the  French  minister, 
which,  like  other  vital  parts  of  this  dispatch,  Slidell 
was  careful  to  put  in  cypher,  reads:  " Cotton  to  the 
value  of  one  hundred  million  francs,  estimated  on  the 
basis  of  the  prices  current  at  Havre  on  23d  July,  de 
ducting  freight  and  all  other  ordinary  charges.  Free 
importation  during  the  war  of  all  merchandise  under 
French  flag,  without  payment  of  duties  or  imposts  of 
any  kind,  and  for  a  limited  term  after  the  war  of  every 
sort  of  merchandise  of  French  origin.  As  the  Con 
federate  States  are  now  without  almost  every  article  of 
merchandise  of  foreign  fabric  or  origin,  importations 
must  necessarily  yield  enormous  profits,  and  their  pro 
ceeds  at  a  moderate  calculation  represent  at  least  five 
hundred  thousand  bales  of  cotton  to  be  shipped  to 
France.  Havre  will  then  be  the  great  entrepot  of 
cotton.  Alliances  defensive  and  offensive  for  Mexican 
affairs.  For  this  last  commissioner  has  no  express  in 
structions,  but  he  has  large  discretion." 

Whether  or  not  Slidell  had  exceeded  the  warrant  of 
his  instructions  in  this  last  matter,  which  he  had  also 
broached  in  the  same  manner  to  the  Emperor,  is, 
perhaps,  open  to  question.  Certainly,  the  tone  of 
Benjamin's  dispatch  of  October  17th,  quoted  from 
above,  was  not  in  accord  with  a  proposal  of  alliance, 


304  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

offensive  and  defensive,  for  the  conquest  of  Mexico. 
But  Slidell's  offer  was  not  disavowed,  nor  was  disap 
proval  of  it  expressed.  When  Benjamin  wrote  on 
October  17th  he  did  not  know  what  use  the  envoy  had 
made  of  the  authorization  to  buy  French  recognition  ; 
moreover,  his  suspicions  of  France  then  concerned 
Texas  ;  there  is  no  positive  disapproval  of  the  French 
design  to  conquer  Mexico.  Therefore,  I  should  say 
that  Benjamin  would  have  sustained  the  commissioner 
in  this  offer  if  the  object  aimed  at  had  been  attained 
through  it. 1 

During  the  summer,  however,  Napoleon  kept  away 
from  Paris,  politics,  and  Slidell,  as  far  as  possible ; 
and  when  cornered,  said  the  time  was  not  propitious 
for  action.  At  length  Thouvenel  was  replaced  by 
Drouyn  de  FHuys,  and  Slidell  must  seek  favor  with 
the  new  minister,  whom  he  found  (October  26th) 
" ignorant  of  [the]  purport"  of  the  propositions  made 
to  his  predecessor  and  to  the  Emperor,  i  l  but  they 
seemed  to  impress  him  strongly.77  Having  thus  paved 
the  way  for  further  negotiations  with  the  new  servant, 
Slidell  again  got  a  chance  at  the  master,  and  found 
him  quite  as  full  of  fair  promise  as  ever.  "The 
Emperor  asked  why  we  had  not  created  a  navy ;  he 
said  that  we  ought  to  have  one  ;  that  a  few  ships  would 
have  inflicted  fatal  injury  on  the  Federal  commerce, 
and  that  with  three  or  four  powerful  steamers  we  could 
have  opened  some  of  our  ports.  I  replied  .  .  . 
that  the  great  difficulty  was  not  to  build  but  to  man 
and  arm  them,  under  the  existing  regulations  for  the 
preservation  of  neutrality  ;  that  if  the  Emperor  would 

1  Mason  distinctly  approved  of,  and  in  fact,  suggested  a  similar 
alliance,  September  4,  1863 ;  see  Mason,  p.  447. 


DIPLOMATIC  EELATIONS  305 

only  give  some  kind  of  verbal  assurance  that  his  police 
would  not  observe  too  closely  when  we  wished  to  put 
on  board  guns  and  men,  we  would  gladly  avail  our 
selves  of  it.  He  said,  '  Why  could  you  not  have  them 
built  as  for  the  Italian  government  ?  I  do  not  think 
it  would  be  difficult,  but  I  will  consult  the  Minister  of 
Marine  about  it.' " 

With  what  comprehension  and  delight  this  hint  was 
received  at  Eichmond  we  can  readily  imagine.  Then, 
too,  SlidelFs  dispatch  of  November  llth,  must  have 
echoed,  a  sursum  corda,  in  the  hearts  in  that  city ; 
for  it  reported  that  the  Emperor  had  written  to  Mercier 
on  October  30th,  directing  him  to  intimate  to  Seward 
in  no  uncertain  terms  the  opinion  of  Napoleon  that 
the  independence  of  the  Confederate  States  was  l  i  unfait 
accompli  "  ;  and  also  that  a  circular  had  been  sent  to 
the  European  powers  (England  and  Eussia)  inviting 
their  cooperation  in  an  appeal  to  Washington  and  to 
Eichmond  for  a  suspension  of  hostilities  and  raising 
of  the  blockade. 

And  now,  while  cheering  news  came  from  Slidell, 
the  fortunes  of  war  again  opportunely  befriended  the 
Confederacy.  Another  well-meaning  but  incompetent 
Federal  officer,  reluctantly  forced  into  a  command  to 
which  he  felt  himself  unequal,  confronted  Lee  at 
Fredericksburg.  With  a  gallant  and  hopeless  assault 
upon  the  fortified  heights  held  by  the  Confederates, 
Burnside  had  wasted  the  blood  and  shattered  the  con 
fidence  of  his  splendid  army.  It  is  another  crushing 
blow  for  the  Federals  in  their  insane  endeavor  to 
conquer  the  South,  said  the  press  of  Europe ;  while 
the  victor,  grieved  at  the  slaughter,  wrote  to  his  wife 
on  Christmas  Day  :  "  But  what  a  cruel  thing  is  war  j 


306  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

to  separate  and  destroy  families  and  friends,  and  mar 
the  purest  joys  and  happiness  God  has  given  us  in  this 
world  ;  to  fill  our  hearts  with  hatred  instead  of  love  for 
our  neighbors,  and  to  devastate  the  fair  face  of  this 
beautiful  world  !  I  pray  that,  on  this  day  when  only 
peace  and  good- will  are  preached  to  mankind,  better 
thoughts  may  fill  the  hearts  of  our  enemies  and  turn 
them  to  peace. "  '  His  army,  he  continues,  was  never 
in  better  condition,  and  he  only  regrets  that  the  with 
drawal  of  Burnside  beyond  the  Eappahannock  without 
another  fight  baffled  hopes  of  such  a  victory  as  might 
have  proved  decisive. 

Throughout  the  winter  and  early  spring  of  1863, 
despite  the  increasing  privations  of  the  people  and  the 
sufferings  of  the  soldiers,  the  tone  of  sentiment  in  the 
South  was  optimistic.  Why  does  the  Emperor  lose  his 
precious  opportunity  in  vacillation?  writes  Benjamin 
to  Slidell,  on  March  24th:  "  This  war  may  not  last 
beyond  the  present  year,  perhaps  not  beyond  the 
sickly  season  of  a  Southern  summer,  and  yet  he  suffers 
himself  to  be  restrained  from  decisive  action  by 
alternate  menaces  and  assurances  uttered  with  no 
torious  mendacity  by  the  leaders  of  the  frantic  mob 
which  now  controls  the  government  of  the  United 
States." 

In  an  earlier  dispatch  he  had  informed  Slidell  of 
the  visit  of  Erlanger  to  Eichmond  to  negotiate  for  the 
Confederate  loan.  Instead  of  $25, 000, 000,  the  govern 
ment  took  only  $15,000,000,  at  77,  interest  seven  per 
cent.  ;  and  would  perhaps  have  declined  that,  but  for 
the  belief  that  the  placing  of  the  loan  in  France  at  this 
time  might  have  some  good  political  effect.7 

1  K.  E.  Lee,  Letters  of  General  Lee,  p.  89.       2  See  Mason,  p.  351. 


DIPLOMATIC  EELATIONS  307 

Napoleon,  however,  was  no  longer  really  vacillating  ; 
lie  had  gone  as  far  as  he  dared  to  go  without  England's 
company,  though  he  continued  to  dally  with  the  Con 
federates  for  some  time.  On  January  8th,  taking 
advantage  of  the  still  fresh  tidings  of  the  Federal  dis 
aster  at  Fredericksburg,  and  of  the  undoubted  distress 
among  French  operatives  consequent  upon  the  cutting 
off  of  the  cotton  supply,  Slidell  sent  to  the  Emperor, 
through  his  private  secretary,  Mocquard,  a  renewed 
demand  for  the  separate  recognition  of  the  Confederacy 
by  France.  Napoleon  dictated  a  courteous  note,  to  be 
delivered  through  Mercier  at  Washington,  offering 
friendly  mediation  between  the  belligerents,  and  sug 
gesting  an  armistice.  It  was  duly  presented  to  Seward, 
and  by  him  to  Lincoln,  early  in  February,  receiving  a 
calm  and  polite  refusal,  accompanied  by  reasons,  quite 
in  contrast  to  the  menacing  words  with  which  the  mere 
suggestion  of  such  interference  on  the  part  of  the 
British  government  had  been  met.1 

In  England  itself  at  this  same  time  the  effect  of  the 
victory  of  Lee  over  Burnside  was  not  a  little  offset  by 
the  constantly  increasing  influence  of  Lincoln's  Eman 
cipation  Proclamation,  which  had  now  received  the 
final  touch,  on  January  1,  1863,  that  was  to  start  it  on 
its  way,  no  longer  a  mere  piece  of ' '  campaign  thunder," 
but  an  active  force  working  for  the  disintegration  of 
slavery  at  home  and  for  its  discrediting  abroad.  True, 
the  opinion  of  the  upper  classes  and  of  many  influential 
journals  was  that  the  President's  Proclamation  was 
a  hypocritical  and  iniquitous  attempt  to  curry  favor 
and  to  stir  up  a  slave  rebellion.  Thus  the  Times 
declared  that  Lincoln  was  calling  "to  his  aid  the 

1  Rhodes,  Vol.  IV,  p.  348. 


308  JTJDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

execrable  expedient  of  a  servile  insurrection.  Egypt 
is  destroyed,  but  his  heart  is  hardened,  and  he  will  not 
let  the  people  go"  ;  then  the  Saturday  Review  fulmi 
nated  against  "  the  American  lawgiver  [who]  not  only 
confiscates  his  neighbor's  slaves,  but  orders  the  slaves 
to  cut  their  masters7  throats'7  ;  and  Mason  was  writing 
to  Benjamin,1  "This,  I  think,  will  be  the  judgment 
passed  upon  it  [i.  e.,  the  Proclamation]  by  all  except 
the  most  ignorant  classes  in  England." 

Mason  was  partly  right,  for  even  Lord  Eussell  was 
commenting  on  the  Proclamation  to  Lord  Lyons  as  a 
very  questionable  war  measure,  and  one  that  seemed  to 
embody  no  principle  really  hostile  to  slavery,  but 
merely  "  vengeance  on  the  slave  owner.'7  However, 
in  spite  of  aristocratic  criticism  of  Lincoln7  s  act,  it  met 
with  increasingly  hearty  approval  from  the  mass  of 
the  people  ;  and  in  this  same  dispatch  Mason  gives  a 
more  judicious  opinion  :  "  Though  I  doubt  not  a  word 
from  the  minister,  suggesting  that  the  time  has  arrived 
for  recognition,  would  meet  with  unanimous  response 
in  the  affirmative,  both  from  ministerial  and  oppo 
sition  benches  in  the  House  of  Commons,  I  do  not 
think  Lord  Palmerston  is  disposed  to  speak  that  word. 
Nor  will  the  Tories  make  an  issue  with  him  on  Ameri 
can  affairs.  The  fact  is  that  parties  are  so  nearly 
balanced  in  the  House,  and,  as  it  would  seem,  in  the 
country,  that  they  are  very  wary  in  measuring  strength 
with  their  opponents.7'  In  other  words,  neither  party 
was  willing  to  risk  favor  with  the  people  by  any  such 
espousal  of  the  Confederate  cause  as  would  provoke 
resentment. 

In  the  meanwhile  public  mass  meetings  expressed 
1  Dispatch  of  January  15  ;  see  Mason,  p.  371. 


DIPLOMATIC  EELATIONS  309 

sympathy  with  the  North,  and  the  period  of  acute  dis 
tress  among  the  cotton  operatives  was  painfully  pass 
ing.  To  them  the  war  could  no  longer  be  made  to 
appear  a  war  for  Southern  independence  and  against 
Northern  conquest  ;  neither  they  nor  their  betters 
in  England  understood  much  about  the  constitution 
of  the  Union,  but  they  instinctively  disliked  slav 
ery  :  the  war  was  now  a  war  for  the  abolition  of 
slavery. 

Benjamin  fully  understood  the  advantage  that  his 
adversary  would  derive  from  the  dissemination  of  the 
idea  that  the  war  was  really  a  war  of  emancipation ; 
but  that  idea  had  been  disseminated.  The  slavery 
question  cropped  up,  about  this  time,  in  a  new  form. 
Intimations  having  been  received  in  Eichmond  from 
Mason  *  that  the  opinion  was  freely  expressed  in  Eng 
land  and  elsewhere  that  the  successful  establishment  of 
the  Confederacy  would  be  followed  by  the  repeal  of  the 
clause  of  the  Confederate  Constitution  prohibiting  the 
African  slave  trade,  Benjamin  wrote  an  elaborate  cir 
cular  (dated  January  15th),  which  he  sent  to  Mason 
as  well  as  the  other  representatives  abroad.  Instruc 
tions  had  recently  (November  19th)  been  furnished  to 
Mr.  L.  Q.  C.  Lamar,  as  commissioner  to  Eussia,  from 
whom  the  Confederacy  might  get  an  introduction  into 
the  society  of  nations ;  but  Mr.  Lamar  found  no  wel 
come  awaiting  him.  He  sent  word  to  the  Eussian  of 
ficials  that  he  had  come,  and,  like  Bob  Acres,  was 
told,  in  substance,  "Well,  you  can  go  away  again." 
This  had  not  yet  happened,  however,  when  Benjamin 
forwarded  him  a  copy  of  the  circular,  and  this 
copy  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  and  was  pub- 

» Mason,  p.  373. 


310  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

lislied. '  There  was  no  secret  in  the  paper,  nor  can  it 
in  justice  be  regarded  as  anything  but  an  entirely 
proper  and  judicious  statement  of  the  position  assumed 
by  the  Confederate  government ;  yet  it  was  susceptible 
of  misrepresentation,  and  was  misrepresented. 

In  substance,  Benjamin's  circular  stated  that  the 
Confederate  government  had  no  control  whatever  over 
the  slave-trade,  which  was  undoubtedly  true  : 

"  The  states,  by  the  Constitution,  .  .  .  unani 
mously  stipulated  '  that  the  importation  of  negroes  of 
the  African  race  from  any  foreign  country  other  than  the 
slave-holding  states  or  territories  of  the  United  States 
of  America  is  hereby  forbidden  j  and  Congress  is  re 
quired  to  pass  such  laws  as  shall  effectually  prevent 
the  same  >  (Article  I,  section  9).  It  will  thus  be  seen 
that  no  power  is  delegated  to  the  Confederate  govern 
ment  over  this  subject,  but  that  it  is  included  in  the 
class  ...  of  powers  exercised  directly  by 
the  states.  .  .  .  Any  attempt  on  the  part  of  the 
treaty-making  power  of  this  government  to  prohibit 
the  African  slave-trade,  in  addition  to  the  insuperable 
objections  above  suggested,  would  leave  open  the  im 
plication  that  the  same  power  has  authority  to  permit 
such  introduction.  No  such  implication  can  be  sanc 
tioned  by  us.  The  government  unequivocally  and 
absolutely  denies  its  possession  of  any  power  whatever 
over  the  subject,  and  cannot  entertain  any  propositions 
in  relation  to  it.  While  it  is  totally  beneath  the  dig 
nity  of  this  government  to  give  assurances  for  the  pur 
pose  of  vindicating  itself  from  any  unworthy  suspicions 
of  its  good  faith  on  this  subject  that  may  be  dissemi 
nated  by  the  agents  of  the  United  States,  it  may  not 

1  Cf.  Callahan,  p.  95 ;  N.  Y.  Times,  April  1,  1863. 


DIPLOMATIC  EELATIONS  311 

be  improper  that  you  should  point  out  the  superior 
efficacy  of  our  constitutional  provision  to  any  treaty 
stipulations  we  could  make.  ...  A  treaty  might 
be  abrogated  by  a  party  temporarily  in  power  in  our 
country,  at  the  sole  risk  of  disturbing  amicable  rela 
tions  with  a  foreign  power.  The  Constitution,  unless  by 
an  approach  to  unanimity,  could  not  be  changed  with 
out  the  destruction  of  this  government  itself.  .  .  . 

1  i  The  policy  of  the  Confederacy  is  as  fixed  and  immu 
table  on  this  subject  as  the  imperfection  of  human 
nature  permits  human  resolve  to  be.  No  additional 
agreements,  treaties,  or  stipulations  can  commit  these 
states  to  the  prohibition  of  the  African  slave-trade 
with  more  binding  efficacy  than  those  they  have  them 
selves  devised.  .  .  .  We  trust,  therefore,  that  no 
unnecessary  discussions  on  this  matter  will  be  intro 
duced  into  your  negotiations.  If,  unfortunately,  this 
reliance  should  prove  ill-founded,  you  will  decline 
continuing  negotiations  on  your  side,  and  transfer 
them  to  us  at  home,  where,  in  such  event,  they  could 
be  conducted  with  greater  facility  and  advantage, 
under  the  direct  supervision  of  the  President." 

The  Confederacy  was  not  to  have  the  opportunity 
of  making  a  treaty  with  any  power ;  but,  in  contem 
plation  of  successful  negotiations,  it  was  proper  that 
the  Secretary  of  State  should  instruct  his  subordinates 
that  the  Confederate  President  and  Senate  were  incom 
petent  to  consider  at  all  a  treaty  involving  the  slave- 
trade.  If  taken  in  good  part,  his  words  bear  no 
sinister  interpretations ;  but  just  as  ill-informed  or 
malevolent  critics  had  carped  at  Lincoln's  Proclama 
tion  of  Emancipation  because  it  decreed  abolition  only 
where  his  authority  was  not  recognized,  viz.,  within 


312  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

the  Confederacy,  while  it  maintained  slavery  in  those 
places  under  his  control,  even  so  the  evil-disposed 
saw  in  this  paper  the  hint  that  the  South  would, 
if  it  could,  reopen  the  slave-trade.  Its  capture  and 
publication,  therefore,  were  unfortunate. 

Meanwhile,  Benjamin  had  received  Slidell's  dispatch 
containing  the  hint  that  the  Confederates  might  build 
vessels  of  war  in  France.  Instructions  were  sent  him 
to  make  sure  of  the  Emperor's  good  faith  in  the  matter, 
which  then  passed  for  a  time  under  the  control  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  and  of  his  most  important  repre 
sentative  in  Europe,  Captain  Bulloch.1  But  to  Benja 
min  Slidell  still  reported  the  steps  in  the  negotiations. 
After  an  interview  with  a  shipbuilder,  who  sought  him 
out,  and  who  was  known  to  be  in  the  confidence  of  the 
Emperor  ;  after  an  interview  with  Drouyn  de  1'Huys, 
who  intimated  that  he  would  shut  his  eyes  and  not  see 
what  was  not  called  to  his  attention ;  and  after  farther 
reassuring  promises  from  the  Minister  of  Marine  and 
from  Louis  Napoleon  himself,  through  the  shipbuilder, 
"  that  there  would  be  no  difficulty  on  the  subject/' 
Slidell  felt  confident  that  all  would  be  well.  Cap 
tain  Bulloch,  kept  informed  by  him,  then  made  provi 
sional  contracts  for  the  building  and  equipping  of  four 
corvettes  of  the  Alabama,  type,  and  later  for  two  iron 
clad  men-of-war.  It  was  no  wonder  that  Benjamin 
was  "  entirely  convinced  of  the  hearty  sympathy  of 
the  Emperor,'7  or  that  he  wrote  to  Slidell  (June  22d) 
contrasting  the  bullying  of  England  by  Seward  and 
Adams  with  their  self-restraint  toward  France,  and 
praising  "the  acumen  of  Mr.  Seward  in  discovering 

^or  fuller  accounts,  see  Bulloch,  Vol.  II,  Chap.  I;  Bigelow, 
passim  ;  and  Slidell's  dispatches,  Pickett  Papers. 


DIPLOMATIC  RELATIONS  313 

(rhere  it  was  safe  to  threaten,  and  where  it  was  pru 
dent  to  refrain. " 

While  his  efforts  thus  seemed  to  be  rewarded  with 
some  success  in  France,  and  while  there  was  still  pros 
pect  of  more  Alabamas  slipping  away  from  England, 
the  trend  of  public  opinion  and  the  attitude  of  the 
British  government  were  not  so  favorable.  Consider 
able  effort  had  already  been  made  to  influence  popular 
feeling  in  Europe  through  the  newspapers.  Mr. 
Benjamin  sent  out  Edwin  De  Leon,  "for  the  special 
purpose  of  enlightening  public  opinion  in  Europe 
through  the  press,'7  and  with  him  the  Secretary  of 
State  kept  up  a  correspondence.  A  considerable 
fund  of  secret-service  money  was  put  at  his  disposal, 
and  he  was  instructed  to  use  it  in  subsidies  where  it 
might  prove  effective.  De  Leon  was  a  journalist  of 
some  experience,  and  was  expected  to  accomplish 
a  great  deal  with  the  papers,  especially  in  France  and 
England,  where  he  went  first.  Having  done  there  all 
that  he  conceived  necessary  for  the  time,  he  wrote, 
suggesting  that  with  more  funds  he  might  be  more 
useful.  Benjamin  replied  on  December  13,  1862 : 
"I  will  take  measures  to  forward  you  additional 
means  to  enable  you  to  extend  the  field  of  your 
operations,  and  to  embrace,  if  possible,  the  press  of 
Central  Europe  in  your  campaign.  Austria,  and 
Prussia,  as  well  as  the  smaller  Germanic  powers,  seem 
to  require  intelligence  of  the  true  condition  of  our 
affairs,  and  of  the  nature  of  our  struggle,  and  it  is  to 
be  hoped  you  may  find  means  to  act  with  efficiency  in 
molding  public  opinion  in  those  countries. ' ' 

It  was  at  this  time,  we  recall,  that  Benjamin  was 
sending  out  Lamar  in  the  vain  hope  of  finding  Russia 


314  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

willing  to  receive  a  Confederate  envoy.  He  and  De 
Leon  discovered  that  Central  Europe  was  hopelessly 
against  them  where  it  took  any  interest  whatever  in 
the  matter.  The  most  promising  fields  were  France  and 
England,  and  there  De  Leon  carried  out  Benjamin's 
wishes  as  best  he  might  by  publishing  scraps  of  South 
ern  news  and  pro-Southern  articles  in  papers  and  re 
views.  His  usefulness  in  France,  however,  was  some 
what  curtailed  by  his  having  incurred  the  not  unrea 
sonable  resentment  of  Mr.  Slidell,  who  complained  to 
Benjamin1  of  the  agent's  preposterous  assumption  of 
diplomatic  airs,  and  consequent  interference  with  him, 
and  seriously  questioned  the  extent  of  his  knowledge 
of  and  influence  over  Parisian  journals.  With  this, 
however,  we  have  nothing  to  do  further  than  to  men 
tion  it.  In  England  several  agents  were  relied  upon 
quite  as  much  as  De  Leon  to  mold  public  opinion. 
Mr.  Mason  himself  understood  this  to  be  part  of  his 
duty,  and  called  attention  to  another8  who  helped, 
though  not,  of  course,  a  Confederate  emissary ;  this 
was  Mr.  James  Spence,  who  figured  prominently  in 
the  negotiation  of  the  cotton  bonds  of  the  Confederacy, 
and  whose  speech  for  the  South  was  always  at  com 
mand.  But,  feeling  that  back-stairs  dealings  with  the 
press  did  not  accord  with  the  diplomatic  status  he 
wished  Mr.  Mason  to  assume,  Benjamin  confided  the 
press  matters  and  other  non- diplomatic  business  to 
Henry  Hotze,  who,  like  De  Leon,  had  been  a  journal 
ist,  and  who  now,  as  commercial  agent  of  the  Confed 
eracy  in  London,  was  to  occupy  a  very  difficult  and 
necessary  post.  With  his  activities  in  other  direc- 

1  Cf .  Callahan,  p.  97.  2  Mason,  pp.  271,  295. 


DIPLOMATIC  RELATIONS  315 

tions,  in  connection  with  other  departments  of  the 
Confederate  government,  we  need  not  deal ;  what  was 
expected  of  him  by  the  State  Department  may  be  best 
learned  through  a  few  extracts  from  one  of  Benjamin's 
dispatches  : l  "  You  are  aware  that  your  position  of 
commercial  agent  was  conferred  principally  with  the 
view  of  rendering  effective  your  services  in  using  the 
press  of  Great  Britain  in  aid  of  our  cause ;  and  until 
our  recognition  all  other  objects  must  be  made  sub 
ordinate  to  that  end.  .  .  .  Your  plan  of  engaging 
the  services  of  writers  employed  in  the  leading  daily 
papers,  and  thereby  securing  not  only  their  coopera 
tion,  but  educating  them  into  such  a  knowledge  of  our 
affairs  as  will  enable  them  to  counteract  effectually  the 
misrepresentations  of  the  Northern  agents,  appears  to 
be  judicious  and  effective  ;  and  after  consultation  with 
the  President  he  is  satisfied  that  an  assignment  to  the 
support  of  your  efforts  of  two  thousand  pounds  per 
annum  out  of  the  appropriation  confided  to  him  for 
secret  service  will  be  well  spent. " 

But  the  Confederacy  could  not  thus  purchase  golden 
opinions;  despite  the  earnest  efforts  of  the  London 
Index, 2  a  weekly  paper  chiefly  sustained  by  the  vari 
ous  press  agents,  its  best  advocates  there  were  the 
honest  British  love  of  fair  play  and  the  inspiring  vic 
tories  of  the  Confederate  generals.  When  the  latter 
continued,  so  did  the  admiration  of  the  English  ;  but  as 
the  slaughter  of  one  Northern  army  was  relentlessly 
followed  by  the  bringing  forward  of  another  to  the 
slaughter,  as  the  deadly  and  heroic  blows  of  the  armies 
of  the  South  seemed  to  leave  no  more  wound  than 

1  January  16,  1863 ;  see  Rhodes,  Vol.  IV,  p.  356,  note. 
'Callahan,  p.  92. 


316  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

upon  water,  the  confidence  of  her  foreign  friends  was 
shaken. 

In  military  affairs,  during  the  spring  and  summer 
of  1863  as  one  year  before,  the  Confederacy  seemed 
ever  on  the  eve  of  attaining  such  success  as  would  end 
the  contest  victoriously  for  her,  and  yet  never  quite 
succeeded.  At  Ohancellorsville,  on  May  3d,  Lee  shat 
tered  another  Federal  army  and  discredited  another 
Federal  general ;  but  though  "  Fighting  Joe"  Hook 
er's  reputation  was  gone,  Lee  had  lost  the  worth  of 
many  a  brigade  in  u  Stonewall  "  Jackson,  who  there  fell 
mortally  wounded  after  one  more  triumphant  demon 
stration  of  his  genius.  While  in  the  Southwest  the 
Federals  had  yet  made  poor  use  of  their  possession  of 
New  Orleans,  and  had  been  driven  back  from  Vicks- 
burg,  their  armies  now  gathered  in  fatal  folds  about 
that  last  great  stronghold  on  the  Mississippi,  and  Lee  in 
Virginia  once  more  staked  all  upon  a  daring  campaign 
of  invasion.  But  Yicksburg  surrendered  on  the  fourth 
of  July,  while  each  side  was  resting  from  the  shock 
of  Gettysburg.  Again,  as  at  Antietam,  Lee  had 
failed  in  a  task  that  was  too  great;  and  this  time, 
though  his  splendid  army  held  its  fragments  together 
and  safely  crossed  the  Potomac,  it  had  suffered  a  de 
feat  from  whose  consequences  nothing  but  his  skill 
could  have  saved  it. 

Just  before  the  news  of  these  disasters  reached  Eng 
land  the  Southern  sympathizers  there  had  made  an 
other  demonstration.  Mr.  Eoebuck  introduced  into 
Parliament  a  resolution  that  the  government  should 
enter  into  negotiations  with  the  other  great  powers 
looking  to  intervention  in  American  affairs,  and  sup 
ported  it  by  a  speech  strongly  in  favor  of  the  Con- 


DIPLOMATIC  EELATIONS  317 

federacy,  in  which  he  detailed  an  interview  with  Napo 
leon  to  show  that  that  monarch  "  was  stronger  than  ever 
in  favor  of  recognizing  the  South. ' '  But  the  motion  was 
debated  in  no  friendly  spirit  by  members  of  the  domi 
nant  party  j  the  reference  to  Napoleon  was  ill-judged, 
and  led  to  denial,  charge,  and  countercharge  between 
him  and  Eoebuck ;  and  it  was  subsequently  with 
drawn  by  its  author  on  July  13th.  Hotze  wrote  Ben 
jamin  ten  days  later  that  the  defeat  at  Gettysburg, 
coupled  with  the  fall  of  Yicksburg,  had  spread  very 
general  dismay.  And  Confederate  securities,  buoyant 
in  early  spring,  were  now  unsteady,  and  soon  on  the 
downward  grade. l 

Before  this  time,  however,  the  secretary  was  being 
wrought  up  to  the  conviction  that  there  was  little 
present  hope  of  recognition  from  England,  and  the 
strained  relations  with  the  British  consuls  in  the  Con 
federacy  were  rapidly  approaching  a  crisis.  In  a  dis 
patch  to  Mason, 2  June  6th,  Benjamin  gives  very  dis 
passionately  his  side  of  the  case,  which  we  shall  quote, 
with  the  prefatory  statement  that  this  particular  quar 
rel  was  with  Mr.  Moore,  British  consul  at  Eichmond, 
who  had  exerted  himself  in  behalf  of  two  men  seeking 
to  evade  military  service  under  the  false  pretense- 
there  seems  no  doubt  of  this— that  they  were  British 
subjects,  and  who  had  expressed  himself  very  indis 
creetly  in  connection  with  the  matter  : 

"The  President,77  says  Mr.  Benjamin,  "  has  not 
deemed  it  necessary  to  interpose  any  obstacle  to  the 

lPickett  Papers;  Mason,  pp.  419-427,  431,  et  seq, ;  Khodes,  Vol. 
IV,  pp.  374-376. 
2  Mason,  pp.  432,  et  seq. 


318  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

continued  residence  of  British  consuls  within  the  Con 
federacy  by  virtue  of  exequaturs  granted  by  the  former 
government.  His  course  has  been  consistently  guided 
y  the  principles  which  underlie  the  whole  structure 
of  our  government.  The  state  of  Virginia  having 
delegated  to  the  government  of  the  United  States  by 
the  Constitution  of  1787,  the  power  of  controlling  its 
foreign  relations,  became  bound  by  the  action  of  that 
government  in  its  grant  of  an  exequatur  to  Consul 
Moore.  When  Virginia  seceded,  withdrew  the  powers 
delegated  to  the  government  of  the  United  States,  and 
conferred  them  on  this  government,  the  exequatur 
granted  to  Consul  Moore  was  not  thereby  invalidated. 
On  these  grounds  the  President  has  hitherto 
steadily  resisted  all  influences  which  have  been  exerted 
to  induce  him  to  exact  of  foreign  consuls  that  they 
should  ask  for  an  exequatur  from  the  government  as  a 
condition  of  the  continued  exercise  of  their  functions. 
It  was  not  deemed  compatible  with  the  dignity  of  the 
government  to  extort,  by  enforcing  the  withdrawal  of 
national  protection  from  neutral  residents,  such  in 
ferential  recognition  of  its  independence  as  might  be 
supposed  to  be  implied  in  the  request  for  an  exequatur. 
The  consuls  of  foreign  nations,  therefore,  established 
within  the  Confederacy,  who  were  in  the  possession  of 
an  exequatur  issued  by  the  government  of  the  United 
States  prior  to  the  formation  of  the  Confederacy,  have 
been  maintained  and  respected  in  the  exercise  of  their 
respective  functions,  and  the  same  respect  and  pro 
tection  will  be  accorded  to  them  in  the  future  so  long 
as  they  confine  themselves  to  the  sphere  of  their  duties 
and  seek  neither  to  evade  nor  defy  the  legitimate  au 
thority  of  this  government  within  its  own  jurisdiction. 
"  There  has  grown  up  an  abuse,  however,  the  result 
of  this  tolerance  on  the  part  of  the  President,  which  is 
too  serious  to  be  longer  allowed.  Great  Britain  has 
deemed  it  for  her  interest  to  refuse  acknowledging  the 
patent  fact  of  the  existence  of  this  Confederacy  as  an 
independent  nation.  It  is  scarcely  to  be  expected  that 


DIPLOMATIC  BELATIONS  319 

we  should,  by  our  own  conduct,  imply  assent  to  the 
justice  or  propriety  of  that  refusal. 

11  Now,  the  British  minister  accredited  to  the  gov 
ernment  of  our  enemies  assumes  the  power  to  issue 
instructions  to,  and  exercise  authority  over  the  consuls 
of  Great  Britain  residing  within  this  country  :  nay, 
even  to  appoint  agents  to  supervise  British  interests  in 
the  Confederate  States.  This  course  of  conduct  plainly 
ignores  the  existence  of  this  government,  and  implies 
the  continuance  of  the  relations  between  that  minister 
and  the  consuls  of  Her  Majesty  resident  within  the 
Confederacy  which  existed  prior  to  withdrawal  of  these 
states  from  the  Union. 

"It  is  further  the  assertion  of  a  right  on  the  part  of 
Lord  Lyons,  by  virtue  of  his  credentials  as  Her  Majesty's 
minister  at  Washington,  to  exercise  the  power  and 
authority  of  a  minister  accredited  to  Eichmond,  and 
officially  received  as  such  by  the  President.  Under 
these  circumstances,  and  because  of  similar  action  by 
other  ministers,  the  President  has  felt  it  his  duty  to 
order  that  no  direct  communication  be  permitted  be 
tween  the  consuls  of  neutral  nations  in  the  Confederacy 
and  the  functionaries  of  those  nations  residing  within 
the  enemy's  country." 

Benjamin  exposes  in  diplomatic  phraseology  what 
must  have  been  in  plain  speech  an  intolerable  situ 
ation  ;  with  the  British  consuls  under  the  authority  of 
and  receiving  their  instructions  through  the  British 
minister  in  Washington,  friction  could  hardly  have 
been  avoided.  The  fact  that  Moore's  exequatur  was 
now  revoked  is  but  a  symptom  of  the  growing  irritation 
against  England,  which  was  to  be  further  increased  by 
a  similar  incident.  In  the  autumn  of  1862  Mr.  Magee, 
British  consul  at  Mobile,  had  assisted  the  state  of 
Alabama  to  send  through  the  blockade,  on  a  British 
man-of-war,  a  large  sum  in  specie  to  pay  interest  on 


320  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

the  state  bonds  to  foreign  creditors.  Immediately 
upon  learning  of  this  flagrant  breach  of  the  Queen's 
proclamation  of  neutrality,  Lord  Lyons  dismissed  Mr. 
Magee,  in  spite  of  the  earnest  protest  of  Mr.  Benjamin 
against  a  policy  which  could  not  but  react  injuriously 
upon  the  credit  of  the  state  of  Alabama.  In  report 
ing  the  affair  to  Lord  Russell,  the  British  minister  at 
Washington  conceded  the  reasonableness  of  Mr.  Ben 
jamin's  objection  to  "the  connection  between  this 
legation  and  the  consulates  in  the  South,  [as]  em 
barrassing  and  inconvenient,  with  regard  both  to  the 
government  of  the  United  States  and  to  the  de  facto 
government  of  the  Confederate  States." 

"Mr.  Benjamin's  complaint  concerning  the  dis 
missal  of  Mr.  Magee  by  Her  Majesty's  government,"  he 
continued,  "is  less  reasonable.  ...  To  export 
specie  from  Mobile  was  a  manifest  breach  of  the 
blockade  of  that  port.  .  .  .  But  it  is  not  sur 
prising  that  this  affair  should  have  increased  the  sus 
ceptibility  of  the  Confederates  with  regard  to  the  con 
nection  between  this  legation  and  the  Southern  con 
sulates."  J  Just  after  the  culmination  of  the  quarrel 
with  Moore,  this  Mobile  affair  developed  a  sequel. 
Benjamin  informed  Mason2  in  a  dispatch  of  June  llth, 
that  he  had  just  learned  that  a  Mr.  Cridland,  who  had 
sometimes  acted  as  consul  at  Eichmond  during  Moore's 
absence,  had  gone  to  Mobile  and  there  exhibited  cre 
dentials  and  served  the  part  of  consul  to  succeed 
Magee,  under  instructions  from  Washington.  This 
was  immediately  resented,  while  Mason  was  directed 

1  Callahan,  p.  177,  et  seq.  ;  Montague  Bernard,  Neutrality  of  Great 
Britain,  p.  472. 

2  Mason,  p.  436. 


DIPLOMATIC  KELATIONS  321 

to  lay  before  the  British  government  the  views  of  the 
Confederate  authorities,  expressed  temperately  but 
without  hesitation.  Mr.  Cridland  was  informed 
that  he  could  not  be  permitted  to  "  exercise  consular 
functions  at  Mobile,  and  it  [was]  intimated  to  him  that 
his  choice  of  some  other  state  than  Alabama  for  his 
residence  would  be  agreeable  to  this  government." 

As  the  summer  wore  on  and  Mr.  Mason  continued  to 
report  an  unfriendly  attitude  on  the  part  of  Great 
Britain,  and  especially  as  it  became  manifest  that 
the  two  Confederate  rams  building  at  Birkenhead  would 
hardly  be  allowed  to  repeat  the  Alabama's  bold  trick 
and  escape,  it  became  equally  manifest  that  even  the 
attempt  at  diplomatic  relations  with  England  would 
soon  have  to  cease.  The  powerful  ranis  at  Birkenhead 
would  have  been  of  incalculable  service  to  the  Con 
federacy  ;  for  with  such  vessels,  as  the  famous  Virginia 
(or  Merrimac)  had  demonstrated,  the  fleet  of  wooden 
blockading  boats  before  Charleston,  Wilmington,  and 
Mobile  might  have  been  brushed  away,  or  blown  "  as 
high  as  the  sky,  to  let  King  Cotton  and  his  army  pass 
by."  When  the  first  fears  of  interference  with  the 
construction  of  these  vessels  arose,  Benjamin  had 
instructed  Mason  to  arrange  for  their  transfer  to  French 
or  other  neutral  flags,  and  Captain  Bulloch  had,  with 
great  address,  succeeded  in  selling  them  to  French 
owners,  with  whom  he  had  a  secret  understanding  that 
the  men-of-war,  once  safely  out  of  British  waters,  should 
be  resold  to  the  Confederacy.  *  But  though  the  blind  was 
well  constructed,  Benjamin  apparently  perceived  that 
it  would  never  successfully  undergo  the  scrutiny  of 

Bulloch,  Vol.  I,  pp.  376-460;  Rhodes,  Vol.  IV  p.  377, 
et  seq. 


322  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

Adams.  At  all  events,  without  waiting  for  farther 
news  of  the  efforts  to  get  the  vessels  out  of  Birkenhead, 
he  wrote  to  Mason  :  ' 

"  The  perusal  of  the  recent  debates  in  the  British 
Parliament  satisfies  the  President  that  the  government 
of  Her  Majesty  has  determined  to  decline  the  over 
tures  made  through  you  for  establishing,  by  treaty, 
friendly  relations  between  the  two  governments,  and 
entertains  no  intentions  of  receiving  you  as  the  ac 
credited  minister  of  this  government  near  the  British 
court. 

"  Under  these  circumstances,  your  continued  resi 
dence  in  London  is  neither  conducive  to  the  interests 
nor  consistent  with  the  dignity  of  this  government,  and 
the  President  therefore  requests  that  you  consider  your 
mission  at  an  end,  and  that  you  withdraw,  with  your 
secretary,  from  London. 

"  In  arriving  at  this  conclusion,  it  gives  me  pleasure 
to  say  that  the  President  is  entirely  satisfied  with  your 
own  conduct  of  the  delicate  mission  confided  to  you, 
and  that  it  is  in  no  want  of  proper  effort  on  your  part 
that  the  necessity  for  your  recall  has  originated. 

1  i  If  you  find  that  it  is  in  accordance  with  usage,  to 
give  notice  of  your  intended  withdrawal  to  Earl  Russell, 
you  will,  of  course,  conform  to  precedent  in  that  re 
spect.  ' ? 

Reluctant  to  risk  the  loss  of  any  advantage  that 
might  accrue  through  a  possible,  if  improbable,  change 
of  attitude  on  the  part  of  the  British  government, 
Benjamin  accompanied  this  formal  dispatch  with  a 
private  note  for  the  eyes  of  the  envoy  alone,  leaving  it 
to  his  discretion  as  to  whether  the  order  to  withdraw 
1  Mason,  p.  449. 


DIPLOMATIC  RELATIONS  323 

from  London  should  be  obeyed  immediately  or  disre 
garded,  ' '  in  the  event  of  any  marked  or  decisive  change 
in  the  policy  of  the  British  cabinet  before  your  receipt 
of  the  dispatch.  Although  no  such  change  is  antici 
pated,  it  is  not  deemed  prudent  to  ignore  altogether  its 
possibility,  and  it  is  in  this  view  of  the  case  that  dis 
cretion  is  left  you  as  to  your  action.  In  the  absence  of 
some  important  and  marked  change  of  conduct  on  the 
part  of  Great  Britain,  however,  the  President  desires 
that  your  action  on  the  instructions  in  [the  dispatch]  be 
as  prompt  as  convenient." 

The  authorization  to  withdraw,  hardly  unwelcome, 
was  received  by  Mr.  Mason  on  September  14th.  Noth 
ing  had  softened  the  heart  of  Russell — which,  indeed, 
had  been  but  further  hardened  against  the  South  after 
the  reading  of  Adams's  famous  note  of  September  5th, 
in  regard  to  the  imminent  escape  of  the  two  rams  at 
Birkenhead  :  u  It  would  be  superfluous  in  me  to  point 
out  to  your  lordship  that  this  is  war."  The  vessels, 
so  desperately  needed  in  the  Confederacy,  were  de 
tained.  But  the  prudent  envoy  waited  to  consult 
with  Slidell  about  the  propriety  of  obeying  the  instruc 
tions  to  withdraw,  of  which  he  himself  had  no  sort  of 
doubt.  There  was,  indeed,  nothing  else  to  do,  and 
so,  on  the  21st,  Mr.  Mason  addressed  a  note  to  Lord 
Russell  communicating  the  instructions  received  from 
the  State  Department  and  taking  formal  leave.  Ac 
cording  as  one  views  it, — believing,  on  the  one  hand, 
that  England's  course  saved  the  world  from  another 
such  calamity  as  war  between  her  and  the  United 
States;  or  holding,  on  the  other,  that  Seward  and 
Adams  were  merely  uttering  empty  threats  and  that 
the  proverbially  haughty  Briton  humiliated  his  nation 


324  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIK 

by  tameness  under  such  threats — there  is  a  note  of  the 
pathetic  or  of  the  sarcastic  iu  Lord  Eussell's  reply 
(September  25th),  that  the  reasons  which  had  induced 
him  to  decline  Mason's  overtures  were  "  still  in  force," 
and  that  he  regretted  that  "  circumstances  have  pre 
vented  my  cultivating  your  personal  acquaintance, 
which,  in  a  different  state  of  affairs,  I  should  have 
done  with  much  pleasure  and  satisfaction."  Five 
days  later  the  Confederate  commissioner  shook  the 
dust  of  London — if  there  be  any — from  his  feet.1 

So  terminated,  in  utter  barrenness,  the  attempt  at 
diplomatic  intercourse  with  England  on  the  part  of 
what  Lord  Eussell  used  to  style,  offensively,  "the 
so-called  Confederate  States."  Shortly  after  Mason's 
withdrawal,  and,  indeed,  before  news  of  it  had  been 
received  in  Eichmond,  the  difficulty  about  the  British 
consuls  reached  its  culmination.  Again  it  was  through 
an  interference  with  the  military  service  of  the  Con 
federacy  that  another  British  consul,  Mr.  Fullarton,  at 
Savannah,  offended.  There  was  much  correspondence 
between  him  and  Governor  Brown,  of  Georgia,  and 
with  the  Confederate  government ;  we  may  most  read 
ily  dispose  of  it  by  turning  to  a  dispatch  of  Ben 
jamin  to  Slidell,  dated  October  8th,  reviewing  the 
history  of  the  relations  with  British  consuls,  and  en 
closing  a  copy  of  the  final  letter  to  Mr.  Fullarton  from 
the  Secretary  of  State.8  In  this  Mr.  Benjamin  writes 
to  the  consul:  "Your  letters  of  the  1st  and  3d  in 
stant  have  been  received.  You  inform  this  govern 
ment  that,  'under  your  instructions  you  have  felt  it 

1  Mason,  pp.  451-456. 

2  This  dispatch  was  capfcnred  and  published;  see  N.  Y.  Times. 
Oct.  20,il863. 


DIPLOMATIC  BELATIOSTS  325 

to  be  your  duty  to  advise  British  subjects,  that  while 
they  ought  to  acquiesce  in  the  service  required  so  long 
as  it  is  restricted  to  the  maintenance  of  internal  peace 
and  order,  whenever  they  shall  be  brought  into  actual 
conflict  with  the  forces  of  the  United  States,  whether 
under  the  state  or  Confederate  government,  the  service 
so  required  is  such  as  they  cannot  be  expected  to  per 
form.7  .  .  . 

"  In  a  communication  from  the  acting  British  consul 
in  Charleston,  to  the  military  authorities,  he  also  has 
informed  them  that'7  [his  instructions  are  similar  to 
Fullarton's].  .  .  . 

"It  thus  appears  that  the  consular  agents  of  the 
British  government  have  been  instructed  not  to  con 
fine  themselves  to  an  appeal  for  redress,  either  to 
courts  of  justice  or  to  this  government,  whenever  they 
may  conceive  that  grounds  exist  for  complaint  against 
the  Confederate  authorities  in  their  treatment  of  British 
subjects  (an  appeal  which  has  in  no  case  been  made 
without  receiving  just  consideration),  but  that  they 
assume  the  power  of  determining  for  themselves 
whether  enlisted  soldiers  of  the  Confederacy  are  prop 
erly  bound  to  its  service ;  that  they  even  arrogate  the 
right  to  interfere  directly  with  the  execution  of  the 
Confederate  laws,  and  to  advise  soldiers  of  the  Confed 
erate  armies  to  throw  down  their  arms  in  the  face  of 
the  enemy. 

"  This  assumption  of  jurisdiction  by  foreign  officials 
within  the  territory  of  the  Confederacy,  and  this  en 
croachment  on  its  sovereignty  cannot  be  tolerated  for 
a  moment ;  and  the  President  has  had  no  hesitation  in 
directing  that  all  consuls  and  consular  agents  of  the 
British  government  be  notified  that  they  can  no  longer 


326  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

be  permitted  to  exercise  their  functions  or  even  reside 
within  the  limits  of  the  Confederacy. 

"  I  am  directed,  therefore,  by  the  President  to  com 
municate  to  you  this  order,  that  you  promptly  depart 
from  the  Confederacy,  and  that  in  the  meantime  you 
cease  to  exercise  any  consular  functions  within  its 
limits." 

Coming  so  closely  after  the  breaking  off  of  such 
relations  as  could,  in  diplomatic  fiction,  be  presumed 
to  subsist  through  Mason's  official  presence  in  London, 
this  expulsion  of  the  British  consuls  might  very  easily 
be  made  to  appear  an  act  of  petulant  retaliation. 
Undoubtedly  the  feelings  of  the  Confederate  Secre 
tary  of  State  were  considerably  exacerbated  against 
England  ;  but  we  have  seen  that  the  existing  relations 
with  the  British  consuls  had  long  constituted  a  serious 
embarrassment.  This  awkward  situation  had  now  ter 
minated  as  it  could  hardly  have  failed  to  terminate. 
Its  coincidence  with  Mason's  recall,  however,  was  un 
fortunate.  Among  some  of  the  people  there  seems  to 
have  been  not  a  little  exultation  at  what  they  erro 
neously  considered  a  slap  in  the  face  for  England  after 
all  her  insolence  to  Mr.  Mason  ;  they  rejoiced  that  the 
government,  as  they  thought,  at  last  showed  real 
spirit  in  its  resentment  of  such  insufferable  bad  man 
ners.  And  a  few,  like  the  Eichmond  Enquirer  (Oc 
tober  15th),  opined  that  "we  may  now  expect,  ere 
long,  to  see  a  British  minister  at  Eichmond,  and 
British  consuls  asking  exequaturs  from  Mr.  Benjamin  ; 
for  England  never  neglects  her  subjects,  nor  leaves 
them  without  the  shadow  of  her  wing  and  the  guard 
ianship  of  her  flag.  The  sooner  the  better  ;  we  do  not 
want  to  hurt  either  her  or  her  subjects." 


CHAPTER  XII 

DARK  DAYS  IN  RICHMOND 

IN  treating  of  the  larger  questions  of  Confederate 
diplomacy,  it  has  been  difficult  to  make  clear  what 
duties  there  could  have  been  sufficient  to  occupy  dur 
ing  long  hours,  as  tradition  says,  so  ready  a  worker  as 
the  Secretary  of  State ;  for  the  writing  of  a  dispatch  or 
two  in  the  course  of  a  mouth  to  Mason  and  Slidell  was 
surely  no  great  tax  upon  his  time.  Even  if  we  stretch 
the  thing  as  much  as  possible,  and  include  the  names 
of  all  the  diplomatic  and  consular  agents  the  Con 
federacy  employed,  the  purely  ministerial  duties  of 
Mr.  Benjamin,  in  the  way  of  writing  and  answering 
dispatches, — remember  that  he  had  no  ambassadors  to 
receive  nor  diplomatic  tea-parties  to  attend  in  Rich 
mond — might  seem  at  first  glance  but  slight. 

Quite  true,  these  various  agents  muster  a  larger 
roll  than  perhaps  one  would  fancy  ;  besides,  the  bulky 
volumes  and  packages,  catalogued  to  the  number  of 
eighty-four,  now  preserved  in  the  United  States 
Treasury  building  at  Washington,  and  containing  let 
ters,  dispatches,  instructions  to  and  from  Mason,  Sli 
dell,  Rost,  Mann,  Lamar,  Preston,  Lynch,  Heyliger, 
Helm,  Hotze,  and  the  rest,  make  the  impression  that 
it  would  be  somewhat  of  a  task  to  read  them,  and  per 
haps  also,  therefore,  to  have  to  write  or  digest  them. 
Our  respect  for  the  labor  involved  in  Mr.  Benj  amin's 
position,  if  won  through  such  considerations,  is  further 
added  to  when  we  discover  that  many  matters  not  in 


328  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

any  way  akin  to  diplomacy  help  to  swell  these  vol 
umes,  and  that,  much  of  the  mere  transcribing  and 
copying  of  dispatches,  as  well  as  the  translating  of 
cypher  and  the  general  routine  work,  had  to  be  done 
by  the  secretary  himself  and  his  assistant,  Mr.  Wash 
ington  ;  for  clerks  were  few,  and  not  always  to  be 
entrusted  with  secrets. 

Making  all  allowances,  however,  the  affairs  of  state 
alone  would  not  have  occupied  Mr.  Benjamin's  time. 
Tradition  has  long  had  it  that  Davis,  finding  his  co 
adjutor  always  willing  and  able,  got  in  the  habit  of  re 
ferring  to  the  State  Department  everything  that  did  not 
beyond  any  hope  belong  to  some  other :  and  that  he 
consulted  more  freely  with  the  Secretary  of  State  than 
with  any  other  member  of  the  cabinet.  Of  the  latter 
supposition  we  have,  of  course,  no  possible  direct  proof, 
though  there  is,  as  I  have  stated  in  a  previous  chapter, 
every  reason  to  believe  it  correct.  To  the  considera 
tions  there  offered,  it  should,  I  think,  be  sufficient  to 
add  here  that  both  Mrs.  Davis  and  Mr.  Washington, 
in  their  reminiscences,  speak  of  the  prolonged  con 
ferences  between  Benjamin  and  Davis.  As  concerning 
the  tradition  that  many  duties  not  necessarily  apper 
taining  to  his  office  were  assigned  to  Mr.  Benjamin, 
confirmation  sufficient  is  found  in  the  miscellaneous 
nature  of  the  contents  of  the  archives  of  the  depart 
ment,  as  well  as  in  current  journalistic  gossip  and  in 
those  same  reminiscences  of  contemporaries.  And  in 
estimating  the  necessary  work  of  the  Secretary  of  State, 
one  should  not  forget  to  include  the  selection  and 
polemic  defense  of  a  policy  in  the  larger  domestic  af 
fairs  of  the  Confederacy.  The  Secretary  of  State  was 
the  proper  intermediary  in  communications  between  the 


DABK  DAYS  IN  BICHMOND  329 

general  government  and  its  members,  the  state  govern 
ments.  Of  this  sort  of  intercourse  there  was,  too, 
an  appalling  abundance,  as  one  may  see  even  in  what 
has  been  published  in  the  invaluable  Official  Records 
of  the  War  of  the  Rebellion.  Contrary  to  the  impression 
that  long  prevailed,  Mr.  Davis  was  most  scrupulous 
and  sincere  in  his  efforts  to  keep  well  within  the  limits 
assigned  to  the  Executive  in  the  Confederate  Constitu 
tion,  and  to  avoid  needless  encroachments  on  the 
sphere  of  local  authority ;  to  those  who  doubt  this 
statement,  not  having  here  space  for  more  elaborate 
discussion,  I  would  merely  suggest  reflection  on  a  few 
facts. 

In  the  North,  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  was  sus 
pended,  during  the  first  year  and  more  of  the  war, 
by  mere  executive  decree ;  arbitrary  arrests  were  made 
hundreds  of  miles  from  the  scene  of  hostilities  by  the 
simple  command  of  Seward  and  Stanton ;  and  later 
Congress  authorized  the  suspension  of  the  writ  during 
the  war.  In  the  South,  Mr.  Davis  neither  claimed  nor 
exercised  this  unusual  power  which,  in  the  four  years 
of  strife  and  in  the  country  that  was  invaded,  was 
employed  for  periods  aggregating  less  than  eighteen 
months,  and  then  by  authority  of  the  Confederate 
Congress.1  Maintaining  a  regard  so  genuine  for  con 
stitutional  limitations,  and  at  the  same  time  carry 
ing  on  the  government  and  getting  things  done, 
often  necessitated  the  writing  of  lengthy  and  skil 
ful  arguments  to  convince  reluctant  governors  and 
other  officials  whom  one  could  not  ride  over  rough 
shod.  Though  Mr.  Davis  could  hold  his  own, — none 

1  For  fuller  treatment  of  this  and  similar  topics,  see  Rhodes,  Vol. 
V,  pp.  453-458,  470-475. 


330  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

better,  in  this  sort  of  pen-fight, — it  was  not  infrequently 
a  physical  impossibility  for  him  to  devote  his  energies 
to  this  instead  of  to  the  real  battles.  Accordingly,  it 
was  commonly  believed,  and  no  doubt  correctly,  that 
Mr.  Benjamin  wrote  many  of  the  very  able  letters  de 
fending  the  policy  of  the  government,  and  that  he  it 
was  who  formulated  these  policies  and  drafted  them 
into  laws.1 

We  could  wish  it  more  detailed  and  specific,  but  it 
is  a  pleasant  picture  of  the  Secretary  of  State  that  is 
given  by  Mr.  Washington,3  confirming  some  of  the 
conclusions  I  have  drawn  :  "I  was  brought  into  close 
relation  with  Mr.  Benjamin,  occupied  the  adjoining 
room  [at  the  department]  to  his,  and  shared  his  con 
fidence  and  friendship  to  an  unusual  extent.  This  en 
ables  me  not  only  to  estimate  him  as  a  public  official, 
but  to  weigh  and  appreciate  his  many  personal  gifts 
and  admirable  qualities.  ...  A  man  of  society, 
his  tact  in  personal  intercourse  was  unfailing,  his 
politeness  invariable.  In  all  the  trials  and  anxieties  of 
the  great  struggle,  I  never  saw  his  temper  ruffled  or 
embittered.  His  opinions  were  generally  decided  but 
courteously  expressed,  even  when  he  differed  most 
widely  from  others.  In  his  most  unguarded  moments 
I  cannot  recall  that  he  ever  uttered  an  oath  or  a  violent 
expression.  He  was  ever  calm,  self-poised,  and  master 
of  all  his  resources.  His  grasp  of  a  subject  seemed  in 
stantaneous.  His  mind  appeared  to  move  without 
friction.  His  thought  was  clear.  His  style,  whether 
in  composition  or  conversation,  was  natural,  orderly, 

1  For  his  authorship  of  the  Presidential  Messages,  see  the  letter  to 
Mason,  in  Chapter  XIV. 
8  Lawley  MS. 


DAEK  DAYS  IN  RICHMOND  331 

and  perspicuous.  I  do  not  affirm  that  his  composi 
tions  were  wholly  unstudied,  but,  whatever  art  there 
was,  he  had  the  art  to  hide.  I  have  known  him  often 
to  compose  a  long  dispatch  or  state  paper  with  great 
rapidity  with  hardly  a  word  changed  or  interlined  in 
the  whole  manuscript.  Sometimes,  but  very  rarely, 
he  was  unwell,  and  then  he  would  not  work  or  write 
at  all.  Ordinarily,  he  loved  work  and  absorbed  it  not 
only  in  his  own  department,  but  from  other  branches 
of  the  service. 

"Mr.  Benjamin's  habit  was  to  arrive  at  the  depart 
ment  about  9  A.  M.  and  to  stay  until  3  P.  M.,  unless 
he  had  some  special  work  to  complete,  when  he 
remained  longer.  But  usually  he  left  at  three.  He 
dispatched  business  rapidly  and  permitted  no  work  to 
lie  over  or  accumulate.  As  the  President's  offices 
were  near  by,  he  was  much  with  Mr.  Davis.  I  spent 
about  an  hour  with  him  nearly  every  day  at 
the  department,  but  rarely  saw  him  at  any  other 
time.  .  .  . 

"Mr.  Benjamin  identified  himself  wholly  with  the 
struggle  and  with  the  administration.  He  was  per 
sonally  devoted  to  Mr.  Davis,  and  probably  had  more 
influence  with  him  than  any  other  man.  ...  I 
am  sure  that  Mr.  Benjamin  kept  Mr.  Davis  advised  of 
all  the  important  operations  of  the  State  Department ; 
but  its  management,  its  instructions,  correspondence, 
and  policies  were  those  of  its  accomplished  head.  In 
selections  for  positions  abroad,  the  President,  of  course, 
had  the  final  decision." 

Though  obviously  more  concerned  with  the  non- 
official  Mr.  Benjamin  than  this  quotation  from  Mr. 
Washington,  there  is  something  to  my  purpose  in  Mrs. 


332  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

Davis' s  letter/  from  which  I  shall  now  quote,  en 
deavoring  to  keep  away  from  the  alluring  passages 
that  tell  merely  of  the  man  :  "  Mr.  Benjamin  and  Mr. 
Davis  .  .  .  had  had,  up  to  the  year  of  secession, 
little  social  intercourse ;  an  occasional  invitation  to 
dinner  was  accepted  and  exchanged,  and  nothing  more. 
.  .  .  It  was  to  me  a  curious  spectacle  ;  the  steady 
approximation  to  a  thorough  friendliness  of  the  Presi 
dent  and  his  war  minister.  It  was  a  very  gradual 
rapprochement,  but  all  the  more  solid  for  that  reason  ; 
and  when  finally  many  of  their  constituents  objected 
to  Mr.  Benjamin's  retaining  the  portfolio  of  war,  be 
cause  of  some  reverses  which  no  one  could  have  averted, 
the  President  promoted  him  to  the  State  Department 
with  a  personal  and  sore  sense  of  the  injustice  done  to 
the  man  who  had  now  become  his  friend  and  right 
hand  during  the  severe  labors  which  devolved  upon  the 
government  officials  in  that  desperate  and  hapless  con 
flict  of  numbers  against  right. 

"Mr.  Benjamin  was  always  ready  for  work  ;  some 
times,  with  half  an  hour's  recess,  he  remained  with  the 
Executive  from  ten  in  the  morning  until  nine  at  night, 
and  together  they  traversed  all  the  difficulties  which 
encompassed  our  beleaguered  land.  .  .  .  Both  the 
President  and  the  Secretary  of  State  worked  like  galley- 
slaves,  early  and  late.  Mr.  Davis  came  home  fasting, 
a  mere  mass  of  throbbing  nerves,  and  perfectly  ex 
hausted  ;  but  Mr.  Benjamin  was  always  fresh  and 
buoyant.  .  .  .  There  was  one  striking  peculiarity 
about  his  temperament.  No  matter  what  disaster 


1  This  and  other  references,  are  to  private  letters  to  me,  and  to 
Lawley  MS. 


DAKK  DAYS  IN  RICHMOND  333 

befell  our  arms,  after  he  had  done  all  in  his  power  to 
prevent  or  rectify  it,  he  was  never  depressed." 

On  all  observers  whose  reminiscences  are  available, 
the  most  vivid  and  lasting  impressions  made  by  what 
they  saw  of  Mr.  Benjamin  in  Eichmond  are,  that  he 
was  always  cheerful,  and  that  he  worked  very  hard. 
Dr.  Hoge,  for  example,  writes:  l  " He  entered  very 
little  into  the  social  life  of  the  city.  Even  had  he 
been  disposed  to  do  so  he  could  not  have  had  time  for 
it.  He  was  one  of  the  hardest  workers  in  the  cabinet, 
going  to  his  office  early  in  the  morning  and  often  re 
maining  there  until  after  midnight.  No  matter  what 
his  toils  or  how  late  his  vigils,  every  morning  as  he 
came  by  my  house  at  nine  o'clock  (having  breakfasted 
before  leaving  his)  he  was  dressed  faultlessly,  and 
always  with  a  bright,  cheerful  aspect.  Mrs.  Hoge 
often  said  as  she  saw  him  pass,  i  There  goes  Mr.  Ben- 
jamin,  smiling  as  usual.7  " 

Though  we  are  credibly  informed  that  life  is  not  all 
''beer  and  skittles"  anywhere,  and  though  that  state 
ment  would  seem  painfully  true  as  applied  to  the  war- 
shaken  capital  of  the  Confederacy,  nevertheless  the 
beer  and  the  skittles  were  not  utterly  wanting  there. 
Among  a  certain  set,  indeed,  composed  chiefly  of 
reckless  blockade  runners  and  others  who  took  desper 
ate  chances  in  the  gamble  for  fortune,  there  was,  on 
occasion,  such  riotous  living  as  contrasted  painfully 
with  the  undoubted  privations  of  the  many,  at  some 
seasons,  in  a  city  that  knew  what  a  bread  riot  was 
(April  2d,  1863),  and  excited  the  righteous  wrath  of 
the  more  scrupulous  and  patriotic  citizens.  Of  this 
set,  however,  not  even  scandal  could  accuse  Benjamin 

1  Lawley  MS. 


334  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

of  being  one.  Though  Dr.  Hoge  fancied  he  had  too 
little  opportunity  for  amusements,  Mrs.  Davis  and 
others  mention  his  taking  part  in  the  social  life  of  the 
more  dignified  and  proper  set.  This  participation  in 
the  gaieties  by  which  Eichmoud,  from  time  to  time, 
sought  to  relieve  the  strain  of  war,  was,  however,  but 
occasional.  As  a  rule,  the  routine  of  Mr.  Benjamin's 
life  was  very  simple,  his  manner  of  living  unostenta 
tious,  though  as  comfortable  as  his  means  and  the 
exigencies  of  the  situation  permitted. 

"  There  were  no  formal  receptions  or  dinners  by  the 
President  or  any  of  the  cabinet, ' '  writes  Mr.  Washing 
ton.  "They  lived  very  plainly.  Mr.  Benjamin 
lived  in  a  very  modest  way  at  the  west  end  of  Eich- 
mond,  with  a  'mess,'  as  it  was  called,  of  Louisiana 
congressmen — Honorable  Duncan  F.  Kenner,  Charles 
M.  Conrad,  and  others ;  but  while  he  liked  social  in 
tercourse  with  a  few  friends,  he  did  not  care  for  crowds 
or  general  society."  Of  his  associates  at  this  time  we 
learn  further  from  Mrs.  Davis  :  "  He  had  living  with 
him  a  very  well-educated  and  elegant  young  brother- 
in-law,  Jules  St.  Martin,  whom  he  loved  dearly." 
This  is  the  same  interesting  man  of  whose  desperate 
difficulties  with  the  English  tongue  Mr.  Eussell  makes 
mention,  in  his  account  of  the  visit  to  Mr.  Benjamin 
at  Montgomery.  Mrs.  Davis  continues  :  "When Mr. 
Benjamin  came  to  Eichmond,  Mr.  St.  Martin  came 
also,  and  the  two  set  up  a  comfortable  house,  where 
they  entertained  their  friends  in  as  elegant  a  manner 
as  blockaded  bon  vivants  could  do."  Here  were  re 
ceived  some  of  the  few  notables  who  managed  to  find 
their  way  through  the  blockade  ;  and  Mr.  Benjamin's 
friends  were  always  welcome  to  share  what  he  had. 


DARK  DAYS  IN  RICHMOND  335 

As  times  grew  harder,  however,  the  feasts  at  the  secre 
tary's  table  were  somewhat  suggestive  of  that  famous 
lemonade  brewed  for  Mr.  Swiveller  and  herself  by 
"  The  Marchioness."  His  family,  with  a  comparative 
plenty  of  those  broiled  chickens  in  which  they  knew 
he  delighted,  heard  with  much  comic  distress,  through 
a  gentleman  who  dined  with  the  Secretary  of  State, 
that  the  board  on  that  occasion  was  graced  with  plenty 
of  corn  bread  and  a  doubtful  sufficiency  of  bacon.  Of 
course  the  rather  fastidious  Mr.  Benjamin  was  pleased 
to  be  included  among  those  intimate  friends  who, 
toward  the  end  of  the  war,  used  to  receive  from  Mrs. 
Davis  "verbal  invitations  somewhat  in  this  fashion, 
i  Do  come  to  dinner  or  tea ;  we  succeeded  in  running 
the  blockade  this  week'  which  meant  'real  coffee' 
after  dinner,  preserved  fruits,  loaf  sugar,  good  tea,  and 
sometimes  some  anchovy  toast,  which  was  always  ac 
ceptable  to  Mr.  Benjamin's  palate.  He  used  to  say 
that  with  bread  made  of  Crenshaw's  flour  [a  noted 
miller  of  Virginia],  spread  with  paste  made  of  English 
walnuts  from  an  immense  tree  in  our  grounds,  and  a 
glass  of  McHenry  sherry,  of  which  we  had  a  scanty 
store,  'a  man's  patriotism  became  rampant.'" 

Of  Mr.  Benjamin's  family  we  have  not  heard  since 
the  outbreak  of  the  war,  when  some  of  its  members 
were  in  New  Orleans,  and  his  wife  and  daughter  in 
France.  There  the  latter  remained,  and  were  sup 
ported  by  frequent  remittances  from  him,  which, 
though  not  so  lavish  as  they  had  formerly  been,  were 
adequate.  Mrs.  Levy  and  her  daughter,  Mrs.  Pop- 
ham,  and  Miss  Harriet  Benjamin,  in  New  Orleans, 
could  not  but  view  with  alarm  the  approach  of  the 
Federal  fleet.  Mrs.  Kruttschnitt,  another  sister,  was 


336  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

more  fortunate  in  being  secure  against  molestation,  her 
husband  being  of  foreign  nationality,  and,  indeed, 
German  consul.  After  the  fall  of  the  city,  Mrs.  Levy 
and  her  household,  who  had  been  given  no  warning  to 
move  from  New  Orleans  by  Mr.  Benjamin,  found 
themselves  in  a  condition  rather  precarious ;  though 
not  molested  for  some  time,  they  were,  at  best,  cut 
off  from  their  base  of  supplies,  and  from  direct  com 
munication  with  the  one  who  had  so  zealously  looked 
after  their  comfort  and  their  safety.  But  immunity  on 
the  part  of  women  known  to  be  related  to  the  hated 
Confederate  Secretary  of  State  could  not  long  be  ex 
pected  under  the  rule  of  such  heroes  as  the  North  be 
stowed  upon  New  Orleans.  The  stern  necessities  of 
war,  even  to  the  limit  of  Sherman7  s  emphatic  epithet, 
the  South  will  concede  ;  but  with  what  honest  pride 
shall  she  not  boast  that  her  soldiers'  record  is  free 
from  stains  of  purely  wanton  and  cowardly  persecution 
of  defenseless  women  and  children.  What  now  fol 
lowed  for  Mrs.  Levy  and  her  household,  which  I  shall 
relate  as  nearly  as  possible  as  it  was  told  me  by  her 
daughter,  is  not  tragic,  merely  petty  and  spiteful,  of 
just  the  measure  of  the  men  responsible  for  it. 

"One  night  in  the  summer  of  1862,"  said  she, 
a  about  nine  o'clock,  there  came  a  knock  on  the  door 
that  startled  the  family.  Eiley,  the  colored  dining- 
room  man,  went  to  answer  it,  and  returned  with  fear 
in  face  and  accent,  to  announce  that  l  there's  a  Yankee 
right  at  the  door.'  Mrs.  Levy  and  Miss  Harriet  fled, 
leaving  me  to  face  the  young  Federal  lieutenant 
whom  I  found  there,  and  who  told  me  that  he  had 
merely  been  sent  to  warn  us  that  the  house  was  needed 
by  the  military  authorities,  and  would  be  taken  pos- 


DARK  DAYS  IN  EICHMOND  337 

session  of  in  the  morning  and  used  as  a  hospital  for 
General  Weitzel's  men.  'This  will  do,'  he  said,  after 
inspecting  the  rooms  with  a  candle  while  I  followed, 
protesting  vainly.  '  If  you  wish  to  leave  at  once,  you 
may  take  away  such  things  as  you  absolutely  need  ;  a 
squad  of  men  will  be  sent  to  protect  you  to-night.' 
We  began  packing  up  at  once,  and  fortunately,  when 
the  dreaded  soldiers  came,  the  men  proved  to  be 
Germans  who  had  known  Mr.  Popham.  By  humor 
ing  them  and  plying  them  with  what  was  left  of  some 
rare  old  Bourbon  and  Cognac,  once  highly  prized  by 
Mr.  Benjamin  and  his  guests,  we  prevailed  on  them  to 
move  nearly  all  of  the  furniture  to  the  house  of  a 
neighbor,  kindly  put  at  our  service,  which  was  prac 
tically  empty.  Owing  a  small  amount  to  the  German 
grocery  man  whose  yard  adjoined  ours,  I  pulled  some 
palings  off  the  fence  and  drove  the  cow  into  his  yard. 
By  this  payment  in  kind,  our  only  debt  was  cleared. 

"All  through  the  night  we  worked,  packing  and 
moving.  In  the  morning,  as  Mrs.  Levy  was  sitting  on 
a  bundle  of  our  belongings,  almost  the  last,  on  the 
front  porch,  another  squad  of  soldiers,  with  an  inso 
lent  young  fellow  in  command,  came  to  relieve  the 
complaisant  guard  of  the  past  night.  '  Madam,'  said 
the  officer,  '  are  you  the  sister  of  the  arch  rebel,  Ben 
jamin1?'  Mrs.  Levy  timidly  admitted  that  she  was. 
1  Then  you  are  not  to  remove  anything  from  this  house. 
It  is  a  military  necessity.'  Fortunately  this  individ 
ual  was  relieved  later  in  the  day  by  a  more  reasonable 
officer,  who  permitted  us  to  remove  the  few  remaining 
things  that  we  needed.  After  a  few  days  of  discom 
fort  and  uncertainty,  we  rented  two  rooms  in  the 
French  quarter  of  the  city,  where  we  lived  for  some 


338  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

weeks,  till  a  letter,  delivered  we  knew  not  how,  came 
from  Mr.  Benjamin,  advising  us  to  make  our  way  out 
into  the  Confederacy,  where  we  could  be  in  communi 
cation  with  him.  An  honest  debtor,  scorning  to  take 
advantage  of  the  chance  to  slip  out  of  his  obligation, 
paid  to  me  a  note  for  $900  ;  this  was  all  we  had,  and 
all  we  could  hope  to  have  till  we  could  again  get  in 
communication  with  Mr.  Benjamin." 

After  adventures  that  would  be  full  of  interest  if  we 
had  time  to  recount  them,  and  which  many  poor  refu 
gees  could  duplicate  if  their  tales  were  told,  Mrs.  Levy 
and  her  little  family  made  their  way  to  La  Grange,  in 
Georgia.  Here  they  settled,  and  lived  in  comfort, 
considering  the  privations  that  all  were  subjected  to. 
Mr.  Benjamin  sent  them  money,  "as  much  as  he  could 
spare,  and  provisions,  denying  himself,  we  feared,  to 
promote  our  comfort." 

All  of  this  vicarious  punishment  of  the  l  i  arch  rebel, ' ' 
be  it  remembered,  was  of  "  military  necessity,"  by 
military  authority ;  the  confiscation  of  his  property, 
even  to  the  books  in  his  deserted  law  office,  under  act 
of  Congress,  came  later.  With  indignities  and  in 
sults  and  even  serious  privation  menacing  not  only 
his  own  womenkind  but  the  many  friends  of  a  life 
time  in  New  Orleans,  it  would  be  little  wonder  if  Mr. 
Benjamin's  personal  feelings  were  thoroughly  roused 
as  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Mason1  describing  the  "  nature  of 
the  tyranny  exercised  over  that  unfortunate  city  by 
the  brutal  commander  who  temporarily  rules  over  it." 

From  righteous  denunciation  of  General  Butler,  and 
proclamation  of  his  outlawry  (December  23,  1862)— 

1  July  19,  1862  ;  Mason,  p.  296.  For  confiscation  of  the  library, 
see  Picayune,  June  7,  1865. 


DAKK  DAYS  IN  BICHMOND  339 

which  it  must  have  been  a  pleasure  to  proclaim,  even 
if  barren  of  results — we  must  return  to  the  now  brief 
story  of  Confederate  foreign  relations. 

As  soon  as  the  Secretary  of  State  was  officially  in 
formed  that  Mr.  Mason  had  found  it  expedient  to 
withdraw  from  London,  he  notified  the  envoy1  that 
the  President  desired  him  and  his  secretary  to  remain 
on  the  Continent,  preferably  at  Paris,  in  readiness  to 
be  dispatched  wherever  their  services  might  be  pre 
sumed  to  be  useful.  On  this  wandering  commission 
Mr.  Mason  continued  during  the  remainder  of  the  war  ; 
there  was  never  again  any  really  hopeful  opportunity 
to  employ  him  in  diplomacy,  though  he  was  freely 
consulted  by  Mr.  Slidell,  and,  in  a  private  capacity 
made  several  trips  across  the  channel,  attending  to 
such  small  matters  as  Mr.  Benjamin  might  direct  or 
his  own  zeal  might  suggest. 

Of  Mr.  Slidell' s  mission,  too,  the  hope  is  soon  to  be 
lost.  The  historian  gives  a  fuller  account,3  but  we 
may  condense  it :  Louis  Napoleon  played  a  dishonest 
game  with  both  parties,  and  when  caught  at  it  by  the 
United  States,  promptly  sacrificed  the  Confederates. 
Under  his  assurances,  as  I  have  noted,  the  Confederate 
agents  had  contracted  for  the  building  in  France,  at 
Nantes  and  Bordeaux,  of  four  cruisers  and  two  iron 
clads.  Work  was  progressing  satisfactorily,  when  a 
clerk  abstracted  papers  showing  the  design  and  the 
ownership  of  two  of  these  vessels  and  sold  them,  with 
what  other  information  he  possessed,  to  Mr.  Dayton, 

1  Mason,  p.  457. 

2  See  Bigelow,  France  and  the  Confederate  Navy ;  Bulloch,  Secret 
Service   of  the   Confederacy;   and  Callahan,   Diplomatic  History  of 
the  Confederacy. 


340  JTJDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

United  States  minister  at  Paris.  Armed  with  positive 
prooi's  of  the  hostile  destination  of  the  vessels,  Mr. 
Dayton  confronted  the  French  authorities,  and  forced 
tne  government  to  take  steps  that  would  effectually 
prevent  these  ships  from  getting  out  of  French  ports 
to  cruise  under  the  Confederate  flag.  The  first  dis 
quieting  rumors  about  the  cruisers  were  sent  by  Slidell 
in  dispatches  of  November  15  and  19,  1863,  telling  of 
his  note  of  remonstrance  to  Napoleon  ;  of  his  personal 
interview  with  Drouyn  de  1'Huys,  upon  whom  his 
representations  seemed  to  have  some  effect ;  and  of  the 
channels  through  which  the  fatal  secret  had  reached 
Dayton. 

Mr.  Benjamin,  more  perturbed  by  troublous  times 
in  domestic  politics  than  by  unforeseen  disaster  from  a 
quarter  deemed  so  safe,  and  having  exhausted  himself 
in  re-fashioning  the  well-tried  arguments  that  had  so 
far  proved  of  no  force  to  move  European  powers  to 
intervention,  had  been  permitting  himself  to  indulge 
in  a  little  digression l  upon  the  admirable  courage  and 
patience  of  Mr.  Davis  under  severe  criticism  from  his 
own  people:  "In  all  cases  without  exception,  how 
ever,  our  chief  magistrate  is  compelled  to  bear  in 
silence  any  amount  of  clamor  and  obloquy,  for  in  nine 
cases  out  of  ten  a  disclosure  of  facts  would  injure  the 
public  interest.  At  moments  like  the  present,  when 
the  calamities  and  distresses  of  a  long  war  have  created 
in  weak  and  despondent  souls  the  usual  result  on  such 
natures,  by  making  them  querulous,  unjust,  and  clam 
orous,  when  men  even  with  good  intentions,  but  igno 
rant  of  the  facts  on  which  alone  judgment  can  be  based, 
join  in  denunciation  of  those  in  authority,  it  is  a 

1  Picket*  Papers;  dispatch  to  Slidell,  December  9,  1863. 


DAEK  DAYS  IN  KICHMOND  341 

spectacle  really  sublime  to  observe  the  utter  abnega 
tion  of  self,  the  exclusive  reliance  on  the  mem  conscia 
rectij  the  entire  willingness  to  leave  his  vindication  to 
posterity  which  are  displayed  by  the  President." 

Within  little  more  than  a  week  (December  18th) 
after  this,  Mr.  Benjamin  had  received  Mr.  SlidelPs 
warning.  Waiting  a  fortnight  for  further  develop 
ments,  he  was,  for  once,  despondent  from  the  very 
first  when  he  wrote  to  Slidell  on  January  8,  1864 : 
"  Painful  solicitude  is  ...  felt,  lest  in  this  in 
stance  also,  we  may  meet  with  the  double-dealing  from 
which  we  have  suffered  severely  since  the  beginning 
of  our  struggle.  Hopeful  as  I  am  in  temper,  there 
was  something  in  what  passed  in  the  interview  to 
which  you  refer  [i.  e.,  with  Drouyn  de  1'Huys]  that 
indicated  a  desire  to  escape  from  plighted  faith,  and  a 
scarcely  disguised  impatience  of  the  burden  and 
responsibility  imposed  by  previous  engagements,  which 
fills  me  with  distrust.  The  same  effect  has  been  pro 
duced  on  the  President." 

The  actual  determination  to  detain  the  vessels  was 
not  reached  till  months  later;  but  Benjamin  never 
doubted  that  he  had  been  tricked  and  would  be  for 
saken  by  Louis  Napoleon,  though  at  first  he  prudently 
refrained  from  severity  of  censure.  When  the  end 
came,  however,  he  wrote:1  "We  cannot  resist  the 
conclusion  that  there  has  been  bad  faith  and  deception 
in  the  course  pursued  by  the  Emperor,  who  has  not 
hesitated  to  break  his  promises  to  us  in  order  to  escape 
the  consequences  resulting  from  his  unpopular  Mexican 
policy.  .  .  .  We  feel,  therefore,  the  necessity  of 
receiving  with  extreme  distrust  any  assurances  whafc- 

i  June  23,  1864. 


342  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

ever  that  may  emanate  from  a  party  capable  of  the 
double-dealing  displayed  toward  us  by  the  Imperial 
Government.77  From  this  time,  though  dispatches 
continued  to  be  written  to  Slidell  as  commissioner  to 
France,  for  all  practical  purposes  the  attempt  to  en 
list  her  aid  may  be  said  to  have  ceased. 

To  all  men  not  wilfully  blind,  so  we  think  now,  it 
must  have  appeared  clear,  in  the  summer  of  1864,  that 
the  South  could  not  win  her  independence,  and  that  it 
were  best  to  make  whatever  terms  possible  to  avert 
further  useless  shedding  of  blood.  But,  with  reso 
lution  which  some  will  call  stubborn  and  some  heroic, 
the  Southerners  still  fought  on,  and  their  leaders  still 
spoke  confidently  of  the  impossibility  of  conquest  by 
the  North.  Mr.  Benjamin  held  to  this  idea,  and  gave 
it  expression  on  all  occasions,  public  and  private.  He 
writes  to  Slidell  (April  18th)  of  his  "  thorough  con 
viction"  that  independence  is  near,  through  the  utter 
' '  inability  of  the  United  States  to  continue  a  contest 
in  which  its  resources,  both  of  men  and  money  will 
have  been  exhausted  in  vain."  He  speaks  in  equally  as 
confident  a  strain  to  the  Reverend  Colonel  Jacques  and 
Mr.  Gilmore,  unofficial  peace  envoys  from  the  United 
States,  who,  through  passport  from  Lincoln  to  Grant 
and  Grant  to  Lee,  visit  Richmond  on  July  16th  ; l  and 
he  writes  to  his  sister,  Mrs.  Kruttschnitt,  who  was 
within  the  Federal  lines  at  New  Orleans  :  "  31  October, 
1864. — As  for  myself,  my  health  is  good,  my  spirits 
unimpaired,  and  I  look  with  undiminished  confidence 
to  our  future  happy  reunion  around  a  common  fire 
side." 

Other  portions  of  this  letter,  thoroughly  character- 
1  Mason,  p.  517;  Callahan,  pp.  227,  228. 


DAEK  DAYS  IN  EICHMOND  343 

istic  of  the  man  in  his  domestic  relations,  are  so 
interesting  that  I  shall  quote  them  here,  with  no 
further  apologies  for  the  digression.  There  is  news  of 
all  members  of  the  family,  and  loving  solicitude  for 
their  welfare,  but  with  the  exception  of  the  brief 
passage  just  cited,  there  is  scarce  an  allusion  to  him 
self,  and  none  to  political  questions  : 

"  An  opportunity  presents  itself,  my  darling  Penny, 
for  writing  to  you  more  fully  than  in  the  various  scraps 
that  I  have  been  able  to  send  you  from  time  to  time, 
and  I  do  hope  that  you  will  receive  this  safely. 

"First,  let  me  relieve  your  affectionate  heart,  by 
saying  that  we  are  all  well  and  in  good  spirits.  I  had 
letters  quite  recently  from  Sis,  Hatty,  and  Leah 
[Mrs.  Levy,  Miss  Harriett  Benjamin,  and  Mrs.  Pop- 
ham].  Sis  and  Leah  are  no  longer  with  the  family 
in  which  they  were  living,  but  have  obtained  board  at 
a  very  moderate  rate  in  the  home  of  a  farmer  in  the 
neighborhood  of  La  Grange,  where  they  pass  their 
time  somewhat  dully,  perhaps,  but  where  the  table  is 
abundant  with  all  the  products  of  a  prosperous  farm, 
and  where  the  people  are  very  kind  and  good,  and 
consider  themselves  in  great  part  repaid  by  the  tuition 
of  their  little  children,  in  which  Sis  and  Leah  amuse 
themselves.  Prior  to  this  last  change  of  residence  Sis 
was  not  pleasantly  situated,  and  I  am  very  glad  that  she 
was  able  to  find  another  refuge  for  herself  and  L.  I 
am  able,  fortunately,  to  supply  them  with  funds  from 
a  source  which  I  do  not  choose  to  risk  writing  about 
further  than  to  say  that  it  is  outside  of  the  Con 
federacy. 

t  i  Hatty  is  still  with  her  old  friends,  who  seem  much 
attached  to  her  and  will  not  hear  of  her  leaving  them. 
She  is  close  enough  to  Sis  to  make  frequent  visits  prac 
ticable,  and  I  furnish  her  with  a  moderate  contribution 
toward  the  household  expenditure  of  the  family  where 
she  lives. 


344  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

"Our  dear  Joe  [his  brother,  in  the  Confederate 
army]  is  still  in  the  trans-Mississippi,  and  was  un 
luckily  unable  to  accompany  Dick  Taylor  when  he 
crossed  to  this  side,  in  consequence  of  his  ill  health. 
At  my  last  accounts  he  was  much  better.  .  .  . 

11  Lionel  [Mrs.  Levy's  son]  is  well  and  in  good  spirits. 
He  is  judge-advocate  of  the  military  court,  with  the 
rank  of  captain  of  cavalry,  and  his  correspondence 
with  his  mother,  sister,  and  myself  is  pretty  regular. 

' '  I  have  very  encouraging  letters  from  wife  and 
daughter,  and  my  wife  writes  me  that  our  daughter's 
health  is  greatly  improved  and  that  she  is  now  at  last 
sanguine  of  a  radical  cure. 

"  I  heard  of  you  lately  through  Mrs.  Brand,  who  has 
gone  to  Europe,  and  to  whom  I  was  able  to  be  service 
able  in  return  for  her  great  kindness  to  Sis  and  Hatty 
in  their  trouble.  I  have  never  heard  whether  you  re 
ceived  the  photograms  of  my  wife  and  daughter  that  I 
sent  you  by  a  lady  who  promised  to  deliver  them  in 
person,  but  Mrs.  Brand  informed  me  that  she  thought 
she  remembered  your  mentioning  the  receipt  of 
them.  .  .  . 

1  i  And  now,  my  darling,  I  must  talk  of  you  and  your 
own  precious  treasures.  I  suppose  that  Ernest  and 
Julius,  and  my  saucy  little  coquette,  Becky,  have  long 
since  lost  all  memory  of  me.  Your  other  little  one  I 
have  never  seen,  but  it  seems  to  me  you  might  manage 
to  send  me  some  cartes- de-visite  with  the  portraits  of  all 
of  you,  including  my  dear  Kitt.  How  does  he  come 
on  ?  What  does  he  spend  his  time  about  ?  There  must 
be  very  little  business  possible  for  him.  And  how  gets 
on  the  garden?  and  the  ponies?  and  who  are  your 
neighbors  ?  By  the  way,  I  live  only  two  doors  from 

Mrs.  G ,  your  old  neighbor,  who  is  well  and  very 

frequently  talks  of  you.  .  .  . 

a  We  get  letters  from  you  so  very  seldom  that  I  am 
sure  you  do  not  avail  yourself  of  all  the  opportunities, 
though  Sis  and  Hatty  sometimes  hear  from  you  indi 
rectly.  A  very  sure  and  good  way  to  send  me  letters 


DAEK  DAYS  IN  BICHMOND  345 

would  be  to  get  some  person  going  to  Havana  to  take 
a  letter  for  me  and  deliver  it  to  C.  J.  Helm  to  be  for 
warded.  As  our  letters  never  contain  a  word  of  any 
thing  but  family  matters  there  would  be  no  risk,  even 
if  they  were  captured.  I  think  this  could  be  easily 
managed.  I  got  one  letter  from  you  about  four  months 
after  its  date,  from  one  of  the  officers  of  a  French  ves 
sel  that  left  New  Orleans  last  winter. 

"Now  I  must  bid  you  good-bye,  my  own  darling, 
with  a  thousand  kisses  for  you  and  the  dear  little  ones, 
and  a  thousand  affectionate  remembrances  to  Kitt, 
from  one  who  loves  you  dearly,  and  need  not  sign  his 
name." 

No  plea  for  such  a  letter  is  necessary ;  its  sim 
plicity  and  sincerity  of  affection  are  eloquence  enough. 
And  yet  it  is  of  such  a  man  that  we  are  asked  to 
credit  imputations  of  diabolical  cruelty,  complicity  in 
schemes  nefarious  in  the  eyes  of  all  civilization.  We 
are  asked  to  believe  that  Mr.  Davis  and  Mr.  Benjamin 
sent  agents  to  Canada  with  instructions  to  burn  New 
York  City.  The  facts,  or  the  evidences  of  fact,  are 
that  on  April  27,  1864,  Mr.  Davis  issued  the  following 
commission  : 

"HONORABLE  JACOB  THOMPSON,  SIR  :— Confiding 
special  trust  in  your  zeal,  discretion,  and  patriotism,  I 
hereby  direct  you  to  proceed  at  once  to  Canada,  there 
to  carry  out  such  instructions  as  you  have  received 
from  me  verbally,  in  such  manner  as  shall  seem  most 
likely  to  conduce  to  the  furtherance  of  the  interests  of 
the  Confederate  States  of  America  which  have  been  in 
trusted  to  you. 

' '  Very  respectfully  and  truly  yours, 

"JEFFERSON  DAVIS."' 

1  Official  Records,  Series  IV,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  322. 


346  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

To  Clement  C.  Clay,  a  similar  commission  was  issued 
at  the  same  time  ;  and  funds  to  the  amount  of  $900, 000 
were  furnished  Thompson.  The  instructions  given 
being  verbal,  we  have  no  record  of  them  other  than 
the  memory  of  the  persons  concerned. 

Mr.  Benjamin  made  a  fair  statement  of  the  principal 
object  of  the  mission  in  a  dispatch  to  Mr.  Slidell, 
April  30th:1  "  We  have  sent  Jacob  Thompson  of 
Mississippi,  and  Clement  C.  Clay  of  Alabama,  to 
Canada  on  secret  service,  in  the  hope  of  aiding  the 
disruption  between  the  Eastern  and  Western  states  in 
the  approaching  election  at  the  North.  It  is  supposed 
that  much  good  can  be  done  by  the  purchase  of  some 
of  the  principal  presses,  especially  in  the  North  west. " 

If  we  add  to  the  instructions  for  "  aiding  the  dis 
ruption  between  the  Eastern  and  Western  states,"  the 
duty  of  aiding  in  plans  for  the  rescue  of  Confederate 
prisoners  confined  on  Johnson's  Island  and  at  other 
points  near  the  Canadian  border,  we  shall  probably 
hit  the  truth  as  regards  the  objects  of  this  mission. 
We  hear  nothing  further  of  importance  about  it — the 
sweeping  devastations  of  Sheridan  in  the  Shenan- 
doah  Valley  and  the  victories  at  Mobile  and  Atlanta 
discountenanced  the  peace  party  at  the  North — until 
November  27th,  when  fires  undoubtedly  of  incendiary 
origin  broke  out  simultaneously,  or  nearly  so,  in  sev 
eral  New  York  hotels  and  theatres.  They  did  lit 
tle  damage,  but  caused  great  excitement.  In  the 
official  Eecords  of  the  EebeUion,  published  by  the 
United  States  government, 2  we  find  what  purports  to 
be  a  letter  from  Jacob  Thompson,  found  in  the  Con- 

1  PicJcett  Papers,  pkg.  80,  p.  193 ;  see  Callahan,  p.  225,  note, 
s  Series  I,  Vol.  XLIII,  Part  II,  p.  930. 


DAEK  DAYS  IN  KICHMOND  347 

federate  archives,  dated  Toronto,  December  3,  1864, 
and  indorsed,  "  Eeceived  Feb.  13,  1865.  J.  P.  B." 
Here  Mr.  Thompson  describes  the  plans  to  burn  New 
York,  as  of  his  authority,  and  regrets  their  miscar 
riage.  The  inference  is  that  they  were  approved 
by  Mr.  Benjamin,  and  were,  indeed,  the  attempt  to 
carry  out  instructions  received  from  the  Confederate 
authorities. 1 

The  general  denial  of  the  imputation  of  designs  so  re 
volting  by  Benjamin  and  Davis  has  had,  and  will  have, 
little  power  to  convince  so  long  as  the  embers  of  the 
great  war  still  glow.  As  food  for  reflection,  how 
ever,  were  it  not  well  to  consider  what  one  of  the 
South' s  most  bitter  enemies  said  when  high  Confederate 
officials  were  accused  of  complicity  in  the  assassination 
of  Lincoln?  Thaddeus  Stevens  remarked:  "Those 
men  are  no  friends  of  mine.  They  are  public  enemies 
and  I  would  treat  the  South  as  a  conquered  country 
and  settle  it  politically  upon  the  policy  best  suited  for 
ourselves.  But  I  know  these  men,  sir.  They  are  gen 
tlemen,  and  incapable  of  being  assassins."  2 

As  far  as  Mr.  Benjamin  is  concerned,  we  need  no 
better  defense,  as  has  been  stated,  than  his  past  honor 
able  record  to  repel  a  calumny  as  baseless  as  that  other 
clumsy  one  that  he  had  proposed  to  the  British  consul 
in  New  York  that  the  Confederacy  might  return  to  the 
shelter  of  the  mother  country. 3  But  for  information  I 
append  Mr.  Washington's  statement,  made  in  1897  : 

1  Cf.  Rhodes,  Vol.  V,  pp.  320,  330-341 ;  Schouler,  Vol.  VI,  p.  521. 
Headley,  Confederate  Operations  in  Canada,  pp. ,  264-283,  glories  in 
the  attempt  and  describes  his  participation  in  it. 

2  Southern  Hist.  Soc.  Papers,  Vol.  I,  p.  325;  quoted  by  Rhodes, 
Vol.  V.  p.  158,  note ;  italics  mine. 

8N.  Y.  Times,  Jan.  29,  and  Feb.  5,  1884;  cited  by  Kohler,  p.  78. 


348  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

"  I  was  present  at  the  time  when  Mr.  Thompson  re 
ceived  his  instructions  from  Mr.  Benjamin.  They 
were  oral  and  largely  suggestive  and  informal.  Much 
was  left  to  his  discretion,  and  wisely  ;  for  he  was  an 
experienced  and  conservative  man.  But  there  was  not 
a  word  or  a  thought  that  looked  to  any  violation  of  the 
rules  of  war  as  they  exist  among  civilized  nations.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  Mr.  Davis,  Mr.  Benjamin,  General 
Lee,  and  the  other  leaders  of  the  Confederacy,  believed 
to  the  last  that  it  was  not  merely  right,  but  the  wisest 
and  best  policy  to  maintain  and  respect  every  one  of 
the  humane  restrictions  in  the  conduct  of  the  war 
which  are  upheld  by  the  publicists.  They  did  not  be 
lieve  with  the  United  States  War  Department  that 
any  and  all  destruction  of  an  enemy's  property  was 
justifiable.1  So  holding,  the  lives  of  Dahlgren's  cap 
tured  officers  and  men,  despite  public  clamor,  were 
spared,  though  they  came  with  a  known  and  proven 
program  of  sacking  Richmond  and  murdering  Mr. 
Davis  and  his  cabinet. 2  It  was  not  strange,  however, 
that  those  who  burned  Atlanta,  Jackson,  Columbia, 
and  a  score  of  Southern  towns,  besides  a  belt  of  coun 
try  in  South  Carolina  over  forty  miles  wide,  should 
assume  that  the  Confederate  government  would  retali 
ate  in  kind.'7 

As  the  year  1864  drew  to  its  close,  with  Grant  stub 
bornly  holding  to  his  campaign  of  hard  blows  and  not 
to  be  diverted,  with  Sherman  piercing  the  heart  of 
Georgia,  and,  above  all,  with  the  ranks  of  Lee's  army 
rapidly  thinning  and  not  to  be  easily  refilled,  Mr. 
Benjamin  realized  that  the  affairs  of  the  Confederacy 

*See  ante,  Chap.  IX. 

9  Cf .  Rhodes,  Vol.  V,  p.  514. 


DARK  DAYS  IN  RICHMOND  349 

were  in  desperate  plight,  and  that  only  desperate 
measures  might  save  the  day.  He  set  himself  to  the 
task,  not  an  easy  one,  according  to  rumor,  of  convinc 
ing  Mr.  Davis  that  they  must  now  play  their 
trump  cards.  First,  the  ranks  of  the  army  must  be 
filled  up,  and  to  do  this  the  South  must  follow  Lincoln's 
example  and  enlist  the  negroes.  Secondly,  European 
intervention,  involving  the  raising  of  the  blockade, 
must  be  had ;  since  other  means  had  failed,  the  Con 
federacy  must  try  to  move  England  and  France  by 
promising  emancipation  of  the  slaves. 

Some  had  favored  enlisting  negroes  long  before  this  ; 
thus  in  August,  1863,  Mr.  Micon,  of  Florida,  had  pro 
posed  the  drafting  of  slaves.  But  Mr.  Benjamin 
deemed  the  proposal  premature,  and  inadvisable,  since, 
as  he  pointed  out,  they  would  have  to  be  paid  for ; 
and  would  cost  at  least  $2,000  each,  or,  if  hired,  $30 
per  month,  whereas  white  soldiers  received  but  $11. 
The  organization  of  negro  men  in  this  way  might  be 
highly  dangerous ;  and  the  labor  of  the  slaves  was 
needed  in  the  mines  and  in  the  fields.1  Now,  however, 
the  complexion  of  affairs  had  changed,  and  General 
Lee  himself  spoke  favorably  of  employing  negroes  as 
troops.  Eeluctantly  won  over  by  the  representations 
of  the  Secretary  of  State  and  others,  Mr.  Davis  recom 
mended  the  prompt  passage  of  such  legislation  as 
would  empower  him  to  enlist  the  able-bodied  men. 
There  followed,  naturally,  a  long  wrangle  in  Congress 
and  in  the  press  ;  and  though  Lee  made  it  known  that 
he  favored  such  a  measure,  and  though  his  influence 
doubtless  had  more  to  do  with  its  ultimate  adoption 

^ee  PicJcett  Papers,  Domestic  Letters,  August  18,  1863;  summary 
in  Callahan,  p.  245. 


350  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

than  that  of  any  other  man,  all  the  odium  of  it  at 
tached  to  Mr.  Benjamin.  It  was  only  another  foolish 
device,  of  his,  men  said,  for  foreign  effect.  At  this 
time  the  attacks  upon  the  score  of  his  religion  were 
redoubled.  From  their  bitterness  it  was  hard  to  dis 
criminate  between  the  Southern  editors  and  Harper's 
Weekly,  describing  him  as  "a  lifelong  oppressor  of 
[the  negro]  race,  avenging  upon  them  the  mediseval 
torture  of  [his]  own  kind."  When  the  President 
issued  a  proclamation  appointing  March  10th  as  a 
day  of  fasting  and  prayer,  the  fanatical  objected 
because  the  Jewish  Secretary  of  State  signed  and  sealed 
it  in  his  official  capacity. 

In  spite  of  his  unpopularity,  however,  his  oratory 
had  not  lost  its  power.  On  February  3d,  Stephens, 
Campbell  and  Hunter  met  Lincoln  and  Seward  in  what 
is  known  as  the  Hampton  Koads  Conference.  It  was, 
said  Lincoln,  to  secure  "  peace  to  the  people  of  our 
one  common  country";  it  was,  said  Davis,  to  secure 
i  l  peace  to  the  two  countries ' ' ;  hence  it  secured  peace 
to  no  one  then,  and  has  brought  forth  a  pen  and  ink 
controversy  since.1  When  the  Confederate  commis 
sioners  returned  from  this  fruitless  conference,  with  the 
answer,  in  substance,  "no  terms  but  absolute  submis 
sion  to  the  will  of  the  conqueror,"  Mr.  Davis  delivered 
what  Stephens  considered  probably  the  master  ora 
tion  of  his  life  in  an  enthusiastic  mass  meeting  at 
Eichmond,  to  support  the  administration  in  continuing 
the  desperate  conflict.  Three  days  later  (February  9th), 
at  another  meeting,  Mr.  Benjamin  made  his  last  political 

1  For  fair  statement,  see  Rhodes,  Vol.  V,  pp.  67-73 ;  for  Ben 
jamin's  contribution  to  the  controversy  after  the  war,  see  So. 
Hist.  Soc.  Papers,  Vol.  IV,  p.  212. 


DABK  DAYS  IN  KICHMOND  351 

address.  Its  substance  only  is  known,  since  there  is  no 
sort  of  adequate  report  in  any  of  the  papers  ;  it  was  a 
well-timed  and  skilfully  urged  plea  in  behalf  of  the 
policy  of  emancipating  and  arming  the  negroes.  Even 
when  championing  a  measure  so  unpopular,  the  unfor- 
gotten  art  of  the  orator  told  upon  his  audience,  made 
up  largely,  says  Mrs.  Davis,  of  "  officers  and  men  who 
had  ridden  in  from  the  front  to  hear  what  had  hap 
pened.  He  sent  those  who  had  come  discouraged  and 
desperate,  knowing  as  they  did  the  overwhelming  forces 
which  confronted  them,  back  to  camp  full  of  hope  and 
ardor,  and  I  think  made  the  most  successful  effort  of 
his  life. "  l 

But  the  noisy  furore  of  mass  meetings,  as  some 
of  the  papers  remarked,  did  not  furnish  any  recruits 
for  Lee's  army ;  and  as  the  enthusiasm  ebbed,  critics 
and  "  croakers, "  always  plentiful  when  the  tide  turns, 
seemed  to  single  out  Mr.  Benjamin  as  the  chief  cause 
of  the  woes  from  which  the  country  suffered.  Long 
since  recovered  from  the  soreness  of  defeat,  and  justly 
proud,  after  serious  retrospect,  of  the  marvelous  en 
durance  of  the  South  in  an  unequal  contest,  intelligent 
Southerners  have  done  justice  to  the  ability  and  sin 
cerity  of  Mr.  Davis  and  of  his  chief  adviser.  But  the 
watchful  Jones,  who  had  intimated  that  both  Seward 
and  Benjamin  were  "  alike  destitute  of  principle  and 
of  moral  or  physical  courage,"  was  now  doubtless 
correct  in  his  opinion  that  the  country,  demanding  "  a 
change  of  men  in  the  cabinet,  [found  Mr.  Benjamin]  the 

1  Letter  in  Lawley  MS.  ;  Mrs.  Davis  writes  me  (Oct.  12,  1904), 
that  she  was  an  auditor,  in  an  adjoining  room,  when  the  cabinet 
met  to  hear  the  report  of  the  Commissioners,  and  that  it  was  Ben 
jamin  who  suggested  and  insisted  upon  a  public  meeting,  "  to  feel 
the  pulse  of  the  people." 


352  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

most  obnoxious  of  all." l  Still,  in  this  hour  of  stress  as 
always,  Mr.  Davis  stood  by  him.  Congress  fumed  and 
fretted,  and  passed  no  act  that  could  save  the  Con 
federacy  ;  but  it  did  not  oust  the  Secretary  of  State. 
Jones,  who  had  fancied  that  smile  fled  from  his  lip, 
saw  it  return  again. 

Meanwhile  that  other  desperate  expedient  to  which 
Mr.  Benjamin  had  persuaded  the  President  was  being 
tried  in  Europe  :  the  offer  to  emancipate  the  slaves  in 
exchange  for  recognition.  Mr.  Davis  felt,  and  very 
properly,  that  he  had  no  authority  under  the  Constitu 
tion  to  promise  them  freedom,  nor,  indeed,  to  interfere 
in  any  way  with  slavery  ;  a  point  which  Benjamin  read 
ily  conceded,  for  was  it  not  so  argued  by  himself  in  the 
circular  sent  out  to  the  Confederate  commissioners  on 
January  15,  1863?  He  justified  the  usurpation  of  an 
unconstitutional  authority  by  reasons  exactly  similar 
to  those  adduced  by  Lincoln,  and  sanctioned  by  his 
tory,  to  justify  a  like  usurpation  on  his  part.  In 
deed,  such  measures  need  no  excuse  other  than  their 
necessity.  Mr.  Davis  was  convinced,  and  began  to 
concert  with  Benjamin  the  means  of  carrying  out  the 
idea.  The  South,  generally,  of  course,  was  not  ready 
for  such  desperate  remedies;  but  some  leaders  had 
already  advocated  emancipation,  and  General  Lee  was 
believed  to  favor  it.  So  bitter  was  the  feeling  among 
the  majority  of  the  people  against  a  government  that 
seemed  to  sanction  such  acts  as  were  committed  by 
Hunter,  Sheridan,  and  Sherman,  that  there  would  have 
been  less  difficulty  than  is  thought  in  reconciling  them 
to  the  movement,  if  once  they  could  be  convinced  that 
this  would  save  them  from  subjection  to  the  North. 

1  Diary,  September  27, 1863,  and  March  9,  1865. 


DAEK  DAYS  IN  EICHMOND  353 

Still,  until  the  popular  mind  could  be  prepared  for  their 
reception,  it  was  of  the  highest  importance  that  the  new 
designs  of  the  Secretary  of  State  should  be  kept  secret. 
A  gentleman  known  personally  to  Mr.  Benjamin, 
Duncan  F.  Kenner,  of  Louisiana,  one  of  the  wealthiest 
slave-owners  of  his  state,  and  avowedly  not  at  all 
averse  to  emancipation,  was  decided  upon  as  the  special 
envoy  who  should  undertake  the  negotiations  in  Europe. 
Mr.  Mason  and  Mr.  Slidell  might  not  be  thoroughly  in 
accord  with  the  new  ideas,  or  might  not  be  in  a  position 
to  reach  the  English  and  French  authorities  with  whom 
they  had  had  such  unpleasant  experiences.  But  some 
intimations  were  given  them  of  a  change  of  policy  in  a 
dispatch,  the  "  supreme  effort  of  Confederate  diplo 
macy,  "  from  whose  carefully  measured  and  sonorous 
periods  there  will  yet  ring  many  a  proud  echo  in  the 
hearts  of  those  who  still  cherish  a  pathetic  pride  in  the 
lost  cause,  and  who,  accepting  the  issue  as  it  was  de 
cided,  still  believe  with  General  Lee,  "  we  had  .  .  . 
sacred  principles  to  maintain  and  rights  to  defend,  for 
which  we  were  in  duty  bound  to  do  our  best,  even  if  we 
perished  in  the  endeavor. ' J  "  The  Confederate  States, ' ' 
wrote  Benjamin,1  "  have  now  for  nearly  four  years  re 
sisted  the  utmost  power  of  the  United  States  with  a 
courage  and  fortitude  to  which  the  world  has  accorded 
its  respect  and  admiration.  No  people  have  poured 
out  their  blood  more  freely  in  defense  of  their  liberties 
and  independence,  nor  have  endured  sacrifices  with 
greater  cheerfulness  than  have  the  men  and  women  of 
these  Confederate  States. 

1  Dispatch  to  Slidell,  December  29;  to  Mason,  December  30, 1865; 
see  Mason,  pp.  541-545;  Callahan,  pp.  247-267;  Lee's  Letters, 
p.  151. 


354  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

"  They  accepted  the  issue  which  was  forced  on  them 
by  an  arrogant  and  domineering  race,  vengeful,  grasp 
ing,  and  ambitious.  They  have  asked  nothing,  fought 
for  nothing,  but  for  the  right  of  self-government,  for 
independence. " 

He  continues,  that  in  this  war  the  Confederacy  has 
fought  for  Europe  as  well  as  for  herself,  and  yet  is  left 
unaided.  With  skill  he  points  out  the  peculiar  inter 
est  of  France  in  checking  the  arrogance  at  Washing 
ton  :  "It  needs  no  sagacity  to  predict  that  in  the 
event  of  success  in  their  designs  against  us,  the  United 
States  would  afford  but  a  short  respite  to  France  from 
inevitable  war ;  a  war  in  which  France  would  be  in 
volved  not  simply  in  defense  of  the  French  policy  in 
Mexico,  but  for  the  protection  of  the  French  soldiers 
still  retained  by  the  Emperor  Maximilian  under  the 
treaty  with  him,  for  the  maintenance  of  his  position 
on  the  Mexican  throne. " 

And  finally,  in  a  sort  of  peroration  that  Mason  used 
in  a  closing  effort  to  move  Palmerston,  and  wherein 
one  cannot  fail  to  feel,  rather  than  actually  read, 
despair:  "  While  unshaken  in  the  determination 
never  again  to  unite  ourselves  under  a  common  gov 
ernment  with  a  people  by  whom  we  have  been  so 
deeply  wronged,  the  inquiry  daily  becomes  more 
pressing,  What  is  the  policy  and  what  are  the  pur 
poses  of  the  Western  powers  of  Europe  in  relation  to 
this  contest  ?  Are  they  determined  never  to  recognize 
the  Southern  Confederacy  until  the  United  States  as 
sent  to  such  action  on  their  part  ?  Do  they  propose, 
under  any  circumstances,  to  give  other  and  more  direct 
aid  to  the  Northern  people  in  attempting  to  enforce  our 
submission  to  a  hateful  union  ?  If  so,  it  is  but  just 


DARK  DAYS  IN  RICHMOND  355 

that  we  should  be  apprised  of  their  purpose,  to  the  end 
that  we  may  then  deliberately  consider  the  terms,  if 
any,  upon  which  we  can  secure  peace  from  the  foes  to 
whom  the  question  is  thus  surrendered,  and  who  have 
the  countenance  and  encouragement  of  all  mankind  in 
the  invasion  of  our  country,  the  destruction  of  our 
homes,  the  extermination  of  our  people.  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  there  be  objections  not  made  known  to  us, 
which  have  for  four  years  prevented  the  recognition  of 
our  independence,  notwithstanding  the  demonstration 
of  our  right  to  assert,  and  our  ability  to  maintain  it, 
justice  equally  demands  that  an  opportunity  be  afforded 
us  for  meeting  and  overcoming  those  objections,  if  in 
our  power  to  do  so. 

* '  We  have  given  ample  evidence  that  we  are  not  a 
people  to  be  appalled  by  danger,  or  to  shrink  from 
sacrifice  in  the  attainment  of  our  object.  That  object 
— the  sole  object  for  which  we  would  ever  have  con 
sented  to  commit  our  all  to  the  hazards  of  this  war — is 
the  vindication  of  our  right  to  self-government  and 
independence. 

"  For  that  end  no  sacrifice  is  too  great  save  that  of 
honor.  If,  then,  the  purpose  of  France  and  Great 
Britain  have  been,  or  be  now,  to  exact  terms  or  con 
ditions  before  conceding  the  rights  we  claim,  a  frank 
exposition  of  that  purpose  is  due  to  humanity.  It  is 
due  now,  for  it  may  enable  us  to  save  many  lives  most 
precious  to  our  country  by  consenting  to  such  terms 
in  advance  of  another  year's  campaign. 

* '  This  dispatch  will  be  handed  to  you  by  the 
Hon.  Duncan  F.  Kenner.  .  .  .  It  is  proper  .  .  . 
that  I  should  authorize  you,  officially,  to  consider  any 
communication  he  may  make  verbally  on  the  subject 


356  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

embraced  in  this  dispatch  as  emanating  from  this  de 
partment  under  the  instructions  of  the  President." 

Mr.  Kenner,  given  full  and  confidential  instructions, 
and  entrusted  with  most  ample  powers — to  negotiate 
treaties,  to  sell  cotton,  to  purchase  ships,  to  supersede 
or  to  act  with  Mason  and  Slidell — made  his  way  in  dis 
guise  through  New  York  to  Europe,  where  he  arrived 
in  the  latter  part  of  February.  Though  a  man  of  much 
native  ability  and  shrewdness,  and  thoroughly  edu 
cated,  he  had  no  diplomatic  experience,  and  preferred, 
perhaps  for  other  reasons  of  policy,  to  make  interna 
tional  moves  through  Mason  and  Slidell.  Through  the 
latter  he  had  an  interview  with  the  French  Minister  for 
Foreign  Affairs,  who,  as  usual,  would  give  an  answer 
"in  two  weeks,"  while  the  Emperor  still  proposed  to 
act  only  in  concert  with  England.  Eeturning  to 
London  with  Mason  on  March  3d,  Mr.  Kenner  entered 
into  negotiations  with  bankers  for  the  sale  of  cotton, 
conditional  on  recognition,  while  Mason  sought  and 
obtained  an  interview  with  Lord  Palmerston  in  order 
to  sound  him.  In  accordance  with  the  plan  of  action 
agreed  upon  with  Mr.  Kenner  and  Mr.  Slidell,  Mr. 
Mason  did  not  make  a  direct  proposition  to  Lord 
Palmerston,  but  with  considerable  adroitness  so  di 
rected  the  conversation  that  there  could  be  no  mis 
taking  his  meaning,  as  he  read  the  significant  con 
clusion  of  Mr.  Benjamin's  dispatch, — that  the  Con 
federacy  would  abolish  slavery  if  that  were  the 
obstacle  to  recognition.  "Lord  Palmerston  listened," 
says  Mr.  Mason  in  a  dispatch  of  March  31st,  "with 
interest  and  attention  while  I  unfolded  fully  the  pur 
pose  of  the  dispatch  and  of  my  interview.  In  reply 
he,  at  once,  assured  me  that  the  objections  entertained 


DAEK  DAYS  IN  EICHMOND  357 

by  his  government  were  those  which  had  been  avowed ; 
and  that  there  was  nothing  (I  use  his  own  word) 
' underlying7  them."  1 

The  'great  sacrifice,  therefore,  had  been  offered  in 
vain.  Whether  it  would  have  availed  anything  if  pro 
posed  earlier  in  the  struggle  is  an  open  question  ;  now, 
certainly,  it  was  too  late,  for,  three  days  after  the  time 
when  Mason  was  recording  Palrnerston's  reply,  General 
Lee  fell  back  from  the  lines  before  Eichmond,  and  the 
Confederate  government,  fugitive  and  desperately 
maintaining  for  a  few  weeks  the  show  of  organization, 
may  be  said  to  have  come  to  an  end  with  the  fall  of 
that  city. 

1  Mason,  pp.  552-560. 


CHAPTEE  XIII 

STARTING  LIFE  ANEW 

"  NOTHING  will  end  the  war,"  Mr.  Benjamin  had 
written  to  Mr.  Mann,  February  1,  1864,  "  but  the  utter 
exhaustion  of  the  belligerents,  unless  by  the  action  of 
some  of  the  leading  powers  of  Europe. "  Eeluctaut 
were  he  and  Mr.  Davis  alike  to  believe  that  the  Con 
federacy  was  exhausted,  and  till  the  news  came  from 
General  Lee,  on  April  2d,  that  Eichmond  could  no 
longer  be  held,  both  refused  to  despond.  For  some 
weeks,  however,  the  packing  of  government  archives 
had  been  going  on  quietly,  and  Mr.  Benjamin  had  been 
preparing  to  destroy  the  secret  service  papers  whose 
capture  would  compromise  persons  within  the  power 
of  the  enemy ;  so  that  when  the  inevitable  moment 
came,  and  General  Lee's  message  was  delivered  to 
Mr.  Davis  in  St.  Paul's  Church,  all  was  ready  for  im 
mediate  removal  to  some  spot  that  might,  for  the  time, 
be  safer. 

So  many  have  pictured  for  us  the  last  scenes  of  Con 
federate  Eichmond  that  we  need  not  linger  over  them 
here.  Mr.  Benjamin  and  other  officers  of  the  govern 
ment  went  to  Danville,  where  a  halt  was  made  and  tem 
porary  headquarters  were  opened.  The  devoted  Dr. 
Hoge,  wishing  to  continue  his  duties  as  a  chaplain  ' l  so 
long  as  the  Confederate  flag  flew,"  had  come  out  from 
Eichmond  on  the  night  of  April  2d.  "  The  next  fore 
noon,"  he  says,1  "  while  walking  on  the  streets  in 
1  Lawley  MS. 


STABTING  LIFE  ANEW  359 

Danville  I  met  Mr.  Benjamin.  .  .  .  After  greeting 
him  I  asked  him  where  he  was  staying.  He  told  me 
he  had  not  secured  accommodations  anywhere.  It  was 
a  new  thing,  I  doubt  not,  in  his  experience  to  be  un 
certain  about  his  immediate  movements  j  it  had  always 
been  his  good  fortune  to  lay  his  plans  skilfully  and  ex 
ecute  them  as  well.  I  told  him  I  was  the  guest  of  a 
most  estimable  and  hospitable  gentleman,  J.  M.  Johns 
ton,  an  officer  in  one  of  the  Danville  banks,  with  whom 
I  was  on  such  terms  that  I  could  invite  any  friend  of 
mine  to  his  house  with  the  assurance  of  receiving  a 
cordial  welcome.  Mr.  Benjamin  thanked  me  warmly, 
but  said  that  even  if  my  host  would  welcome  him  he 
could  not  think  of  intruding  on  me  by  occupying  a 
part  of  my  room.  .  .  .  Finally,  on  my  assurance 
that,  so  far  from  incommoding  me,  it  would  be  a  great 
pleasure  to  have  such  a  roommate,  he  consented,  and 
accompanied  me  to  Mr.  Johnston's  house.  Just  as  I 
anticipated,  the  whole  family  gave  Mr.  Benjamin  a 
cordial  welcome,  and  he  was  quickly  made  to  feel  at 
home." 

Here  an  anxious  week  was  spent,  during  which  the 
secretary  managed  to  make  himself  a  thoroughly 
agreeable  guest,  and  to  win  Dr.  Hoge's  heart  by  the 
many  "little  things'7  in  which  he  showed  his  native 
regard  for  the  feelings  of  others,  his  thorough  gentle 
ness  and  courtesy.  When  he  found  it  to  be  the  custom 
of  the  family  to  have  prayers  read,  he  attended  punc 
tually,  seeking  neither  to  evade  nor  to  obtrude,  but 
accepting  it  all  naturally.  There  was  little  to  do  but 
talk,  and  in  this  he  consistently  suggested  cheerful 
themes,  and  "  never  made  a  remark  .  .  .  that  jarred 
upon  a  principle  or  sentiment,  even,"  of  his  reverend 


360  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

friend.  They  discussed  topics  literary  and  artistic  : 
"  We  had  some  friendly  arguments  about  the  place 
Tennyson  would  occupy  in  history.  He  was  a  passion 
ate  admirer  of  Tennyson,  and,  I  think,  ranked  him 
above  all  the  English  poets,  Shakespeare  excepted. 
When  I  would  suggest  that  Tennyson  had  never  writ 
ten  anything  equal  to  Comus,  or  II  Penseroso,  or 
U  Allegro,  or  to  Dry  den  in  his  vigorous  and  masterly 
use  of  the  English  language,  or  to  some  of  the  stanzas 
of  Childe  Harold,  he  would  always  be  ready  with  a 
reference  to  some  passage  of  his  favorite  author  to  con 
fute  my  statement.  He  seemed  to  be  as  familiar  with 
literature  as  with  law,  and  among  our  public  men  I 
cannot  recall  one  who  was  a  more  accomplished  belles 
lettres  scholar. " 

But  the  sublime  serenity  and  courage  of  those  who 
could  thus  resolutely  keep  up  their  hearts  by  brilliant 
talk  in  the  midst  of  shipwreck  is  only  a  gleam  of  sun 
shine  to  darken  the  clouds  of  disaster.  It  is  not  well, 
indeed,  to  fiddle  while  Eome  burns.  But  if  there  be 
one  thing  above  another  with  which  the  South  may 
honestly  comfort  herself  it  is  that  her  people  of  un 
broken  spirit  did  not  sit  down  and  weep. 

"Sires  have  lost  their  children,  wives 
Their  lords,  and  valiant  men  their  lives ; 
One  what  best  his  love  might  claim 
Hath  lost ;  another,  wealth  or  fame. 
Woe  is  me,  Alhama  ! '' 

It  was  by  a  people  who  would  not  allow  themselves 
to  brood  over  what  they  must  now  live  without,  that 
the  damage  and  the  loss  must  be  repaired  and  made 
good. 


STABTING  LIFE  ANEW  361 

On  Monday,  April  9th,  Mr.  Benjamin  beckoned  Dr. 
Hoge  quietly  aside,  after  a  general  conversation  with 
the  ladies  in  which  he  had  joined  with  customary 
cheerfulness.  When  they  were  out  of  hearing,  he  said  : 
"I  did  not  have  the  heart  to  tell  those  good  ladies 
what  I  have  just  learned.  General  Lee  has  surrendered 
and  I  fear  the  Confederate  cause  is  lost."  He  added, 
that  he  would  accompany  the  President  to  Greensboro, 
whither  they  must  retreat  at  once ;  but  he  evidently 
considered  the  cause  hopelessly  ruined,  for  he  told  Dr. 
Hoge  that  he  would,  if  the  worst  came,  use  every 
means  to  escape  capture,  having  resolved  never  to  be 
taken  alive.  Since  various  stories  of  theatrical  effect, 
hinting  at  suicide  by  pistol  or  (this  more  in  keeping 
with  the  Mephistophelian  or  Borgian  character  ascribed 
to  him  at  the  North)  the  concealed  poison  of  a  ring, 
have  been  circulated,  it  may  be  as  well  to  add  that 
Dr.  Hoge  distinctly  states  there  was  no  such  puerility 
in  his  calm  statement  of  his  determination. 

Burton  Harrison,  private  secretary  to  President 
Davis,  has  told  entertainingly  of  the  subsequent  ad 
ventures  of  the  fugitive  government,1  with  which  we 
shall  soon  have  done.  At  Greensboro  they  halted  but 
a  few  days,  and  from  there  on,  the  railroad,  poor  as  it 
was,  must  be  abandoned.  The  little  procession  was 
made  up  of  army  wagons,  ambulances,  carriages,  and 
mounted  men,  among  whom  were  the  President  and 
most  of  his  cabinet.  Mr.  Benjamin,  however,  being 
short  and  stout,  and  unused  to  horseback  riding,  joined 
General  Cooper,  another  very  stout  individual,  Jules 
St.  Martin,  and  Attorney-General  Davis,  in  an  ambu 
lance  drawn  by  a  pair  of  broken-down  old  grays.  Mr. 

1  Century  Magazine,  November,  1883. 


362  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

Harrison  records  that,  one  night,  he  rode  up  to  this 
forlorn  vehicle  and  found  it  stuck  fast  in  a  mud-hole. 
He  went  off  to  get  help  to  haul  it  out,  and  "  returning 
to  them  again,  I  could  see  from  afar  the  occasional 
bright  glow  of  Benjamin's  cheerful  cigar.  While  the 
others  of  the  party  were  perfectly  silent,  Benjamin's 
silvery  voice  was  presently  heard  as  he  rhythmically 
intoned,  for  their  comfort,  verse  after  verse  of  Tenny 
son'  s  ode  on  the  death  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington  ! ' ' 
He  was  the  life  of  the  party,  said  one  of  these  fugitives 
afterward,  and  his  good  humor  helped  them  all  to 
bear  the  trials  of  the  road.  From  Greensboro  to 
Charlotte,  and  thence  to  Abbeville  they  went.  Mr. 
Benjamin,  when  the  need  came,  "  dexterously  got 
himself  into  the  saddle  upon  a  tall  horse,  and,  with 
short  legs  hanging  but  an  inconsiderable  distance  to 
ward  the  ground,  rode  gayly  off  with  the  others  of  the 
President's  following."  But  when  the  news  of  Gen 
eral  Johnston's  surrender  arrived,  and  Mr.  Davis  had 
announced  his  determination  to  try  to  make  his  way 
to  Texas  and  join  Kirby  Smith,  Mr.  Benjamin,  writes 
Mrs.  Davis,  1  i '  came  to  him  and  said  :  i  I  could  not 
bear  the  fatigue  of  riding  as  you  do,  and  as  I  can  serve 
our  people  no  more  just  now,  will  you  consent  to  my 
making  an  effort  to  escape  through  Florida  ?  If  you 
should  be  in  a  condition  to  require  me  again,  I  will 
answer  your  call  at  once.7  This  was  his  considerate 
manner  of  saying  all  was  lost  in  his  opinion. ' '  Having 
left  in  charge  of  some  friends  near  Abbeville  a  trunk 
containing  the  whole  of  his  personal  belongings  ex 
cept  what  he  wore,  he  parted  from  the  President  at  the 

1  Letter  in  Lawley  MS.  ;  similar  accounts  in  Davis's  Rise  and  Fall, 
Vol.  II,  p.  694. 


STARTING  LIFE  ANEW  363 

house  where  they  stopped  for  breakfast  ("  Vienna," 
says  Dr.  Hoge),  near  Washington,  Ga.,  and  from  this 
point  we  can  trust  him  to  tell,  in  a  series  of  letters  to 
Mrs.  Rruttschnitt,  his  own  story  of  the  perils  of  the 
next  three  months : 

"Nassau,  22d  July,  1865. 

"  My  darling  Sister  : — I  arrived  here  last  evening  all 
safe  and  sound,  and  will  depart  in  two  hours  on  board 
the  schooner  Britannia  for  Havana,  whence  I  shall 
take  the  first  steamer  for  Europe.  I  cannot,  therefore, 
write  you  a  quarter  of  what  I  should  like  to  tell  you, 
but  must  do  the  best  I  can  and  hope  that  this  letter 
will  be  allowed  to  reach  you. 

"I  separated  from  President  Davis  near  Washing 
ton,  Georgia,  early  in  May,  last,  having  been  requested 
by  him  to  make  niy  way  through  Florida  to  this  place 
or  Havana,  and  after  attending  to  some  public  busi 
ness,  to  rejoin  him  in  the  Trans-Mississippi  District, 
by  the  way  of  Matamoras  and  Texas. 

u  I  started  on  my  journey  on  horseback,  and  knowing 
it  to  be  a  hazardous  one,  I  determined  to  disguise  my 
self  and  assume  a  false  name.  I  cannot  begin  to  give 
you  the  details  of  my  adventures.  I  found  my  most 
successful  disguise  to  be  that  of  a  farmer.  I  professed 
to  be  traveling  in  Florida  in  search  of  land  on  which 
to  settle,  with  some  friends  who  desired  to  move  from 
South  Carolina.  I  got  a  kind  farmer's  wife  to  make 
me  some  homespun  clothes  just  like  her  husband's.  I 
got  for  my  horse  the  commonest  and  roughest  equip 
ment  that  I  could  find,  and  I  journeyed  as  far  as  pos 
sible  on  by-roads,  always  passing  around  towns  and 
keeping  in  the  least  inhabited  districts.  My  progress 
was  necessarily  slow,  about  thirty  miles  a  day,  till  I 
reached  central  Florida.  I  had  intended  going  to  East 
Florida  and  trying  to  cross  the  Gulf  from  Indian  River, 
but  I  learned  that  there  was  not  a  vessel  to  be  found 
there,  and  that  the  risk  of  detection  would  be  great. 
I  heard  also  of  the  proclamation  in  which  a  large  re- 


364  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

ward  was  offered  for  the  capture  of  the  President,  who 
was  most  outrageously  accused  of  having  connived  at 
the  assassination  of  President  Lincoln.  Everything 
satisfied  me  of  the  savage  cruelty  with  which  the 
hostile  government  would  treat  any  Confederate  leader 
who  might  happen  to  fall  into  their  hands,  and  I  pre 
ferred  death  in  attempting  to  escape,  to  such  captivity 
as  awaited  me,  if  I  became  their  prisoner. 

"I  made  my  way,  therefore,  to  the  western  coast  of 
Florida,  and  was  nearly  a  month  in  procuring  a  small 
boat  and  securing  the  services  of  two  trusty  persons  to 
accompany  me  in  the  perilous  effort  to  cross  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico  in  a  little  open  boat.  I  finally  departed  on 
the  23d  June,  and  after  a  voyage  of  about  six  hundred 
miles  in  a  yawl-boat  open  to  the  weather,  with  no  place 
to  sleep,  and  exposed  to  frequent  squalls,  some  very 
severe,  I  happily  arrived  at  the  Bernini  Isles  on  the 
Bahama  reef,  on  Monday  the  10th  instant.  Here  my 
risk  of  capture  was  at  an  end,  and  I  deemed  it  safe  to 
take  passage  in  a  small  sloop,  loaded  with  sponge,  for 
Nassau.  We  left  Bernini  on  Thursday  afternoon,  the 
13th,  and  on  Friday  morning  about  half-past  seven 
o'clock,  the  sloop  foundered  at  sea,  thirty  miles  from 
the  nearest  land,  sinking  with  such  rapidity  that  we 
had  barely  time  to  jump  into  a  small  skiff  that  the 
sloop  had  in  tow  before  she  went  to  the  bottom. 

1  i  In  the  skiff,  leaky,  with  but  a  single  oar,  with  no 
provisions  save  a  pot  of  rice  that  had  just  been  cooked 
for  breakfast,  and  a  small  keg  of  water,  I  found  myself 
at  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning,  with  three  negroes  for 
my  companions  in  disaster,  only  five  inches  of  the  boat 
out  of  water,  on  the  broad  ocean,  with  the  certainty 
that  we  could  not  survive  five  minutes  if  the  sea  be 
came  the  least  rough.  We  started,  however,  quite 
courageously  for  the  land,  and  without  any  signs  of 
trepidation  from  any  one  on  board,  and  the  weather 
continuing  very  calm  we  proceeded  landward  till  about 
eleven  o'clock,  when  a  vessel  was  discerned  in  the 
distance,  which  was  supposed  to  be  a  small  schooner 


STARTING  LIFE  ANEW  365 

and  which  we  felt  sure  of  reaching  if  the  weather  con 
tinued  calm.  We  made  for  the  vessel,  the  three 
negroes  using  the  single  oar  by  turns  in  sculling  our 
little  boat,  and  by  five  o'  clock  in  the  afternoon  were 
safely  on  board  H.  B.  M.  Light  House  Yacht  Georgina, 
a  fine  large  brig,  on  board  of  which  we  were  warmly 
received,  and  treated  very  kindly  by  Captain  Stuart. 
The  vessel  was  on  a  tour  of  inspection  of  the  Bahama 
lighthouses,  but  Captain  Stuart  turned  out  of  his  way 
to  put  me  back  at  Bernini,  where  I  arrived  for  the  sec 
ond  time  on  Saturday,  the  15th.  I  immediately 
chartered  another  sloop  to  bring  me  here,  and  we 
started  the  same  afternoon.  The  voyage  is  only  about 
one  hundred  miles,  but  we  were  so  baffled  by  calms, 
squalls,  and  head  winds,  that  we  were  six  days  making 
it,  and  I  arrived  last  evening  only  to  learn  that  if  I  do 
not  depart  this  morning  for  Havana,  I  may  be  detained 
a  month  before  I  get  another  chance  to  leave  this 
island.  I  am  thoroughly  exhausted,  and  need  rest, 
though  in  perfect  health,  but  I  must  not  yield  to  fatigue 
under  the  circumstances,  and  so  I  am  passing  this 
morning  in  writing  letters  to  go  by  the  Corsica  steamer 
for  New  York  on  Monday,  as  I  know  how  intense  must 
be  the  anxiety  of  all  I  love  on  both  sides  the  At 
lantic,  until  news  is  received  of  my  safety. 

' '  In  passing  through  Georgia  I  left  with  a  friend 
nine  hundred  dollars  in  gold,  all  that  I  could  spare,  to 
be  sent  to  Sis  and  Hatty  at  La  Grange.  I  trust  they  re 
ceived  the  money,  as  they  must  have  suffered  if  they 
had  none  but  Confederate  notes.  I  don't  know  how  to 
write  to  them,  and  must  trust  to  you,  my  darling,  to 
send  them  this  letter  or  a  copy  of  it,  that  they  may  be 
relieved  of  all  solicitude  on  my  account. 

1 '  I  can  as  yet  give  you  no  idea  of  my  plans  or  pur 
poses.  Until  I  reach  England  I  can't  tell  what  my 
condition  is.  I  may  be  penniless,  but  I  have  strong 
reason  to  hope  that  some  six  or  seven  hundred  bales  of 
cotton  which  I  own,  reached  Europe  in  safety.  If  so, 
I  shall  be  beyond  want  for  some  years,  and  can  supply 


366  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

all  the  needs  of  my  dear  sisters,  and  await  events  be 
fore  determining  my  future  course.  If,  however,  I 
find  that  I  have  nothing  left,  I  shall  use  my  pen  for  a 
support  for  the  present,  in  the  English  press,  if  I  can 
so  manage,  as  I  have  every  reason  to  believe  that  I 
would  find  ready  employment  in  that  way. 

"I  am  contented  and  cheerful  under  all  reverses, 
and  only  long  to  hear  of  the  health  and  happiness  of 
those  I  love.  I  send  you  a  thousand  kisses,  my  own 
sweet  sister,  which  you  can  distribute  among  your 
little  darlings  for  me.  Write  me  at  once  all  the  news 
about  the  family,  and  address  me  to  care  of  Fraser,Tren- 
holm  and  Company,  Liverpool. 

"I  will  write  again  from  Havana.  My  best  and 
kindest  memories  for  dear  Kitt." 


In  the  interest  of  the  narrative,  we  shall  not  pause 
now  to  draw  attention  to  such  things  as  his  unfailing 
care  for  the  well-being  of  those  dependent  on  him.  We 
may  supplement  the  story  by  noting,  from  an  "  inter 
view  "  with  H.  A.  McOleod,1  that  he  was  one  of  the  two 
brave  boatmen  who  sailed  from  Manatee  with  Mr. 
Benjamin,  "an  awful  nervy  man."  Furthermore, 
from  a  letter  to  Mr.  Bayard,2  describing  the  in 
cidents  of  the  escape,  we  learn  that  the  reason  for  the 
sudden  foundering  of  the  sloop  was  her  being  too 
tightly  packed  with  wet  sponge  which,  expanding  as  it 
dried,  burst  the  seams  of  the  vessel ;  and  that  in  the 
strong  current  of  the  Gulf  Stream,  and  in  the  main 
channel  where  they  were  in  hourly  danger  of  being 
"  saved  "  by  some  Federal  cruiser,  they  came  near  being 
swept  past  the  Bernini  Islands.  There  was  yet  more  to 
come : 

1  Galveston  Daily  News,  May  27, 1884. 
aOct.  20,  1865. 


STAKTING  LIFE  ANEW  367 

' i  Havana,  1st  August,  1865. 

1  i  I  wrote  to  you  from  Nassau,  my  darling  sister,  and 
sent  you  a  long  account  of  my  perils  and  sufferings  in 
effecting  my  escape  from  the  Yankees.  I  left  Nassau 
on  the  day  after  my  arrival  there  (on  the  22d  July), 
and  arrived  here  on  the  25th,  after  a  very  favorable 
passage,  the  first  lucky  weather  that  I  have  had  on  my 
voyages.  I  have  now  recovered  entirely  from  my 
fatigue,  have  had  time  to  provide  myself  with  com 
fortable  clothing,  and  have  been  received  here  with 
great  kindness  and  attention.  I  shall  leave  for  England 
by  the  steamer  of  the  6th  (my  birthday),  and  hope  to 
see  my  wife  and  daughter  once  more  by  the  1st  of  Sep 
tember. 

"This  letter  will  be  carried  to  you  by  Alexander 
Benjamin,  a  young  kinsman  with  whom  I  made  ac 
quaintance  in  Nassau.  It  seems  that  he  is  a  grandson 
of  Emanuel  Benjamin,  our  uncle,  and  is  therefore  sec 
ond  cousin  to  us.  I  have  been  very  much  pleased  with 
him,  and  am  greatly  indebted  to  him  for  the  unwearied 
kindness  and  attention  with  which  he  set  himself  to 
work  to  supply  my  numberless  wants  when  I  arrived 
at  Nassau.  He  was  the  chief  clerk  of  Mr.  Heyliger, 
who  was  the  agent  of  the  Confederate  government  at 
Nassau,  and  is  an  excellent  man  of  business,  as  well  as 
a  gentleman  in  manners,  feelings,  and  deportment. 
Every  one  in  Nassau  spoke  of  him  in  high  terms,  and 
I  beg,  my  love,  that  you  will  give  him  a  warm  and 
cordial  welcome  for  my  sake.  I  am  quite  taken  with 
him. 

"  Since  my  arrival  here,  General  Kirby  Smith  has 
arrived  from  Mexico,  but  is  unable  to  give  me  any 
news  of  my  dear  Joe  and  Lionel.  I  am  quite  anxious 
to  hear  of  them,  and  beg  that  you  will  not  fail  to  give 
me  any  news  of  them,  as  well  as  of  our  poor  forlorn 
sisters,  by  the  very  first  mail  for  Liverpool.  If  you 
give  your  letters  to  Mr.  Benjamin,  he  will  know  how 
to  forward  them  without  fear  of  their  being  intercepted. 
I  trust  that  Sis  and  Hatty  have  been  able  to  reach  New 


368  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

Orleans  in  safety,  and  I  take  it  for  granted  that  they 
would  return  there  as  their  best  refuge.  From  what  I 
have  learned  since  my  arrival  here  I  have  very  strong 
reason  for  believing  that  I  have  saved  about  600  bales 
of  cotton,  and  in  that  event  I  will  have  no  difficulty  in 
providing  for  them  so  as  to  place  them  above  want. 

"  I  did  not  write  you  in  my  last  of  the  narrow  escape 
I  had  from  water-spouts  when  in  my  little  boat  at  sea. 
I  had  never  seen  a  water -spout,  and  often  expressed  a 
desire  to  be  witness  of  so  striking  a  phenomenon.  I 
got,  however,  more  than  I  bargained  for.  On  the 
night  before  I  reached  Bernini,  after  a  day  of  intense 
heat,  the  entire  horizon  was  black  with  squalls.  We 
took  in  our  sail,  uustepped  the  mast,  and  as  we  were 
on  soundings,  we  let  go  the  anchor  in  order  to  ride  out 
the  squalls  in  safety.  They  were  forming  all  around 
us,  and  as  there  was  no  wind,  it  was  impossible  to  tell 
which  of  them  would  strike  us.  At  about  nine  o'clock, 
however,  a  very  heavy,  lurid  cloud  in  the  west  dipped 
down  toward  the  sea,  and  in  a  single  minute  two  large 
water-spouts  were  formed,  and  the  wind  began  blow 
ing  furiously  directly  toward  us,  bringing  the  water 
spouts  in  a  straight  line  for  our  boat.  They  were  at 
the  distance  of  a  couple  of  miles,  and  did  not  seem  to 
travel  very  fast.  The  furious  whirl  of  the  water  could 
be  distinctly  heard,  as  in  a  long  waving  column  that 
swayed  about  in  the  breeze  and  extended  from  the 
ocean  up  into  the  cloud,  the  spouts  advanced  in  their 
course.  If  they  had  struck  us  we  would  have  been 
swamped  in  a  second,  but  before  they  reached  us  the 
main  squall  was  upon  us  with  such  a  tremendous  blast 
of  wind  and  rain  combined  that  it  was  impossible  to 
face  the  drops  of  water  which  were  driven  into  our  eyes 
with  such  violence  as  to  compel  us  instantly  to  turn 
our  backs  to  it,  while  it  seemed  that  the  force  of  the 
wind  was  so  great  that  it  would  press  our  little  boat 
bodily  down  into  the  sea.  The  waves  were  not  high, 
the  strength  of  the  blast  being  such  as  to  keep  the  sur 
face  of  the  water  compressed.  On  turning  our  backs 


STABTING  LIFE  ANEW  369 

to  this  tremendous  squall,  judge  of  our  dismay  on  see 
ing  another  water-spout  formed  in  another  squall  in  the 
east,  also  traveling  directly  towards  us,  although  the 
wind  was  blowing  with  such  fury  from  the  west.  There 
must  have  been  contrary  currents  at  different  heights 
in  the  air,  and  we  had  scarcely  caught  sight  of  this  new 
danger,  when  the  two  spouts  first  seen  passed  our  boat 
at  a  distance  of  about  one  hundred  yards  (separated 
from  each  other  by  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile),  tearing 
up  the  whole  surface  of  the  sea  as  they  passed,  and 
whirling  it  furiously  into  the  clouds,  with  a  roar  such 
as  is  heard  at  the  foot  of  the  Niagara  Falls.  The  west 
ern  blast  soon  reached  the  spout  that  had  been  coming 
toward  us  from  the  east  and  checked  its  career.  It 
wavered  and  broke,  and  the  two  other  spouts  continued 
their  awful  race  across  the  ocean  until  we  lost  sight  of 
them  in  the  blackness  of  the  horizon.  A  quarter  of 
an  hour  after,  all  was  calm  and  still,  and  our  boat  was 
lazily  heaving  and  setting  on  the  long  swell  of  the 
Bahama  Sea.  It  was  a  scene  and  picture  that  has  be 
come  photographed  into  nay  brain,  and  that  I  can  never 
forget. 

"  We  are  all  in  intense  anxiety  on  the  subject  of  our 
honored  and  noble  chief,  Jefferson  Davis.  By  the 
last  accounts  there  was  every  probability  that  those  in 
power  at  Washington  would  succeed  in  getting  rid  of 
him  by  the  tortures  inflicted  on  him  in  prison,  and  that 
the  delay  in  trying  him  was  intended  to  give  time  for 
this  moral  assassination.  No  nobler  gentleman,  no 
purer  man,  no  more  exalted  patriot  ever  drew  breath  ; 
and  eternal  infamy  will  blacken  the  base  and  savage 
wretches  who  are  now  taking  advantage  of  their  brief 
grasp  of  power  to  wreak  a  cowardly  vengeance  on  his 
honored  head. 

1 '  On  looking  over  the  New  Orleans  papers  I  see  that 
many  of  our  old  friends  are  returning,  and  I  specially 
note  that  Payne,  Huntington  &  Co.  have  resumed 
business.  Don't  fail  to  let  me  know  if  my  dear  friend 
Wash  [Huntington]  is  in  New  Orleans,  and  if  so,  give 


370  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

him  a  thousand  memories  of  love  and  friendship  for 
me,  and  say  that  I  will  write  to  him  from  Liverpool. 
You  can  read  to  him  those  parts  of  my  letters  that  don't 
refer  to  family  affairs. 

1  i  I  long,  dearest,  beyond  expression  to  see  you  all 
once  more,  and  to  have  your  darling  chicks  gathered 
round  the  knee  of  '  Uncle  Ben. '  You  must  write  me 
fully  about  them  all,  as  well  as  about  your  own  health, 
and  dear  Kittfs  health  and  purposes — whether  he  is 
going  into  business,  etc.,  etc." 

The  sequel  of  the  story  is  given  in  the  next  letter  : 

' '  17  Savile  Row,  London,  29th  September,  1865. 

u  I  have  received  .  .  .  a  whole  volume  of  letters 
from  home  within  the  last  few  days.  ...  I  can 
only  answer  now  in  a  general  letter  for  you  all,  but  a 
little  later  I  will  be  able  to  regularize  my  correspond 
ence.  As  you  will  all  want  to  know  what  my  move 
ments  are,  and  what  I  expect  to  do,  I  will  begin  with 
myself,  as  all  egotists  do,  and  then  pass  on  to  the  family 
matters. 

"  You  must  have  heard  through  the  papers  that  my 
adventures  and  perils  were  not  ended  at  Havana.  On 
my  voyage  to  England  the  small  steamer  which  con 
veyed  me  to  St.  Thomas  arrived  two  or  three  days  be 
fore  the  larger  vessel  which  was  to  take  us  to  South 
ampton.  I  consequently  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing 
the  scenes  of  my  early  childhood,  but  of  course  my 
memory  was  very  indistinct,  as  I  was  a  mere  infant 
when  we  left  that  island  for  Wilmington.  We  left 
St.  Thomas  at  about  4  p.  M.,  on  the  13th  August  (I 
think  that  was  the  day),  and  at  about  half-past  nine 
o'clock  that  night,  when  we  were  about  sixty  miles  at 
sea  the  ship  was  found  to  be  on  fire  in  the  forehold. 
The  fire  proved  to  be  a  very  serious  one,  the  boats  were 
all  prepared  and  provisioned  for  our  abandoning  the 
ship  if  necessary,  and  the  vessel's  head  was  at  once 
turned  back  toward  St.  Thomas.  By  dint  of  great  ex- 


STABTING  LIFE  ANEW  371 

ertion  and  admirable  conduct  and  discipline  exhibited 
by  all  on  board,  the  flames  were  kept  from  bursting 
through  the  deck  till  we  got  back  to  the  harbor  of  St. 
Thomas,  where  we  arrived  at  about  three  o'clock  in 
the  morning  with  seven  feet  of  water  in  the  hold  poured 
in  by  the  steam  pumps,  and  the  deck  burned  to  within 
an  eighth  of  an  inch  of  the  entire  thickness.  By  the 
aid  of  other  vessels  in  the  harbor  the  fire  was  extin 
guished  :  the  burned  cargo  removed  :  the  forehold 
cleared  of  ashes  and  cinders,  and  in  two  more  days  we 
started  afresh  and  reached  England  without  further 
accident.  If  the  fire  had  been  discovered  only  one  hour 
later,  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  extinguish  it, 
and  I  would  have  been  cast  adrift  on  the  ocean  for  the 
third  time  in  a  little  open  boat. 

' 4 1  was  compelled  to  remain  a  week  in  London  on 
public  business  before  crossing  the  Channel  to  see  my 
family,  and  on  my  arrival  in  Paris  had  the  happiness 
of  embracing  them  in  perfect  health,  my  daughter  be 
ing  now  radically  cured  of  her  lifelong  disorder,  and 
looking  as  blooming  as  a  rose.  I  also  found  letters 
from  Jules  giving  an  account  of  his  visit  to  New  Or 
leans,  and  of  his  seeing  you  all,  and  he  even  commit 
ted  the  gross  flattery  of  writing  to  my  wife  that  '  Ben's 
sister  is  charming.' 

* 1 1  am  now  back  in  London  partly  on  public  and 
partly  on  private  business.  I  am  almost  fixed  in  my 
purpose  to  practice  my  profession  as  barrister  in  Lon 
don,  but  have  not  yet  quite  decided,  because  I  still 
lack  information  about  the  rules  and  regulations  for 
the  admission  of  strangers,  and  the  delay  may  perhaps 
be  so  great  as  to  deter  me.  It  will  also  be  necessary 
for  me  to  become  naturalized. 

i  i  I  have  been  treated  with  great  kindness  and  dis 
tinction,  and  have  been  called  on  by  Lord  Campbell 
and  Sir  James  Ferguson,  the  former  a  peer  and  the 
latter  of  the  House  of  Commons,  both  accidentally  in 
London,  for  the  i  whole  world,'  as  they  say,  is  now  in 
the  country,  this  being  the  '  long  vacation '  in  London, 


372  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

Both  assured  me  that  I  would  meet  the  utmost  aid  and 
sympathy,  and  would  be  called  on  by  a  large  number 
of  the  leading  public  men  here,  as  soon  as  they  returned 
to  town.  Mr.  I)' Israeli  also  wrote  to  a  friend  of  mine 
expressing  the  desire  of  being  useful  to  me  when  he 
should  arrive  in  town,  and  I  have  been  promised  a 
dinner  at  which  I  am  to  be  introduced  to  Gladstone 
and  Tennyson  as  soon  as  the  season  opens  here. 

' <  I  have  also  received  news  that  one  hundred  bales 
of  my  cotton  are  safely  at  sea,  so  that  I  shall  have  the 
means  of  living  for  two  or  three  years,  and  am  thus 
quite  easy  for  the  time  being,  and  with  good  prospects 
ahead.  In  Paris,  I  dined  with  Slidell  and  was  intro 
duced  to  some  bankers  who  hinted  that  if  I  wished  to 
live  in  France,  it  would  be  easy  to  obtain  an  honorable 
and  lucrative  position  in  the  financial  circles,  but  this 
is  far  less  tempting  than  my  old  profession.  My  old 
friend,  Mme.  de  Pontalba,1  also  is  imperious  in  her 
urgency  that  I  should  remain  in  France,  and  promises 
all  sorts  of  aids  and  influence  in  my  behalf,  but  I  re 
peat  that  nothing  is  more  independent,  nor  offers  a 
more  promising  future,  than  admission  as  a  barrister 
to  the  bar  of  London. 

1 '  I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  Bradford  for  a  few 
hours  in  Liverpool  a  day  or  two  ago.  He  goes  to  New 
Orleans  and  you  will  have  a  chance  of  hearing  that  I 
look  as  well  and  as  i  young '  as  ever.  So  now  enough 
of  self.  .  .  . 

"  I  want  you  to  send  me  cartes  de  visiles  of  all  the 
family,  for  those  which  I  received  in  Eichmond  are  in 
my  trunk  which  is  concealed  on  the  other  side,  and  I 
may  perhaps  never  recover  it. 

1  i  I  am  glad  that  Joe  has  gone  to  work  again.  I  do 
not  doubt  his  success,  for  it  is  impossible  that  the 
negroes  should  not  at  some  early  day  be  ruled  under  a 
system  which  will  compel  them  to  labor  for  their  liv. 


'Well  known  in  New  Orleans,  as  are  the  "  Pontalba  Buildings  " 
around  Jackson  Square. 


STAKTING  LIFE  ANEW  373 

ing,  and  if  so  planting  will  be  very  profitable  for  years 
to  come.  .  .  . 

"  I  am  quite  anxious  to  hear  from  Kitt.  Tell  him  to 
write  me  fully  and  frankly.  If  he  sees  a  fair  opening 
for  business,  and  if  a  moderate  capital  be  required  to 
aid  him  in  establishing  it,  I  think  I  could  readily  find 
him  a  silent  partner  on  this  side  who  would  be  willing 
to  advance  it  on  favorable  terms. 

"I  don't  think  that  our  dear  Sis  and  Hatty  should 
remain  in  La  Grange,  separated  from  all  they  love.  It 
seems  to  me  that  they  could  take  a  house  in  New  Or 
leans  in  connection  with  Lionel  as  formerly  ;  and  with 
their  industry  and  economy  the  expenses  would  be 
small,  and  I  am  sure  I  will  be  able  to  help  them  to 
some  extent,  say  about  seventy-five  dollars  a  month, 
and  in  the  meantime  something  better  may  turn  up. 
They  must  feel  very  desolate  and  lonesome,  and  it  is 
not  necessary  that  they  should  be  rendered  unhappy 
by  such  a  trial." 

These  admirable  letters  give  us  so  full  a  chronicle 
that  there  is  little  for  me  to  add,  except  by  way  of 
comment.  In  addition  to  their  service  for  the  narra 
tive,  they  yield  us  a  glimpse  into  that  happy  private 
life  which  was  so  religiously  cherished,  and  guarded  as 
if  it  would  be  profaned  by  the  public  gaze.  Over  all 
the  members  of  the  family  he  would  extend  his  care  ; 
and  while  in  the  midst  of  misfortunes  himself,  he  does 
not  forget  to  think  and  devise  for  them.  To  the  facts 
we  may  add  that  he  arrived  at  Southampton,  as  he 
writes  to  Mr.  Bayard,  "  on  the  30th  August,  nearly 
four  months  after  my  separation  from  the  President, 
during  which  time  I  had  spent  twenty-three  days  seated 
in  the  thwart  of  an  open  boat,  exposed  to  a  tropical  sun 
in  June  and  July,  utterly  without  shelter  or  change  of 
clothes.  I  never,  however,  had  one  minute's  indisposi- 


374  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

tion  nor  despondency,  but  was  rather  pleasantly  exalted 
by  the  feeling  of  triumph  in  disappointing  the  malice 
of  my  enemies."  It  is  an  altogether  remarkable  feat 
of  endurance,  this  escape,  for  a  man  used  to  a  sedentary 
life  and  already  in  his  fifty -fourth  year.  Nor  is  the 
buoyancy  of  spirit,  the  indomitable  will  to  make  a 
fresh  start  in  the  world,  less  remarkable. ' 

Arriving  in  London,  one  of  his  first  cares,  with  Mr. 
Mason  and  others,  was  what  one  might  call  completing 
the  obsequies  of  the  Confederacy,  counseling  with  them 
as  to  winding  up  the  affairs  of  their  offices,  disposing 
of  papers,  etc.  Deeply  and  sincerely  grieved  at  the 
sufferings  of  his  people,  and  especially  at  the  hardships 
of  the  imprisonment  to  which  Mr.  Davis  was  sub 
jected,  he  wrote  at  once  to  Mrs.  Davis,  sending  the 
letter  to  the  care  of  Mr.  T.  F.  Bayard.  Feeling,  too, 
that  Mr.  Davis  should  be  defended  from  the  mean 
calumnies  that  were  being  spread,  he  wrote  a  long  let 
ter  to  the  London  Times  (September  12th),  which  is  an 
admirable  defense  of  the  Confederates  against  the 
charge  of  deliberate  cruelty  to  prisoners.  This  very 
painful  topic  has  been  much  discussed  j  no  one,  I 
suppose,  now  believes  that  Jefferson  Davis  starved  the 
Federal  prisoners  at  Andersonville  and  denied  them 
salt  and  medicines;  if  so,  it  is  peculiar  that  "Lee's 
Miserables"  were  subjected  to  similar  privations,  and 
that  the  eminently  humane  government  of  the  United 
States  declared  contraband  of  war,  and  seized  wher 
ever  possible,  every  drug  that  could  relieve  the  sick, 
every  anesthetic  that  could  soothe  the  tortures  of  the 

1  The  London  Times,  in  its  obituary,  May  9,  1884,  comments  on 
this  "  elastic  resistance  to  evil  fortune  "  as  perhaps  a  race  charac 
teristic. 


STARTING  LIFE  ANEW  375 

wounded  under  the  knife  of  the  surgeon.  Mr.  Benja 
min's  letter1  on  the  subject  is  marked  by  those  charac 
teristics  that  almost  invariably  distinguish  his  writings 
at  a  time  when  the  greatest  violence  of  language  was 
deemed  the  proper  thing  on  both  sides :  perfect  cool 
ness,  calm  logic,  dignified  expression.  That  his  words 
do  not  lack  force  we  may  judge  from  this  paragraph, 
concerning  the  responsibility  for  the  refusal  of  the 
Federals  to  exchange  prisoners  of  war,  which  kept  An- 
dersonville  full,  and  Confederate  armies  empty  :  "It 
requires  no  sagacity  to  perceive  that  every  motive  of 
interest  as  well  as  of  humanity  operated  to  induce  us  to 
facilitate  the  exchange  of  prisoners,  and  to  submit 
even  to  unjust  and  unequal  terms  in  order  to  recover 
soldiers  whom  we  could  replace  from  no  other  source. 
On  the  other  hand,  interest  and  humanity  were  at  war 
in  their  influence  on  the  Federal  officials.  Others 
must  judge  of  the  humanity  and  justice  of  the  policy 
which  consigned  hundreds  of  thousands  of  wretched 
men  to  captivity  apparently  hopeless,  but  I  can  testify 
unhesitatingly  to  its  sagacity  and  efficacy,  and  to  the 
pitiless  sternness  with  which  it  was  executed.  Indeed 
this  refusal  to  exchange  was  one  of  the  most  fatal 
blows  dealt  us  during  the  war,  and  contributed  to  our 
overthrow  more,  perhaps,  than  any  other  single  meas 
ure.  I  write  not  to  make  complaint  of  it,  but  simply  to 
protest  against  the  attempt  of  the  Federals  so  to  divide 
the  consequences  of  their  own  conduct  as  to  throw  on 
us  the  odium  attached  to  a  cruelty  plainly  injurious 
to  us,  obviously  beneficial  to  themselves. " 

On  the  passage  across  the  Atlantic,  it  is  evident,  Mr. 
Benjamin's  political  opinions  had  not  suffered  a  sea 

Reprinted  in  the  N.  Y.  Times,  Sept.  27,  1865. 


376  JTTDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

change,  nor  did  they  ever.  General  Taylor  said  that 
the  Confederacy  was  dead,  and  he  was  tired  of  sitting 
by  the  corpse,  and  had  conie  away.  Mr.  Benjamin, 
too,  accepted  as  decisive  the  ruin  of  the  cause  ;  but  not 
only  was  he  ever  ready  to  speak  in  its  defense,  and  ever 
ready  to  help  fellow- sufferers  in  the  shipwreck,  but  he 
also  relished  conversations  that  would  revive  old  mem 
ories.  From  his  private  letters — he  never  entered 
politics  nor  made  a  political  address  again — I  shall 
quote,  from  time  to  time,  little  references  to  conditions 
existing  in  his  old  home. 

For  the  present,  however,  the  pressing  business  was 
to  provide  for  the  bodily  needs  of  the  day  and  to  make 
some  plan  for  the  future  that  would  repair  a  fortune 
now  gone  for  the  second  time.  He  had  staked  all  on  the 
Confederacy,  and  nearly  all  was  lost.  Much  of  his 
money,  earned  at  the  bar  in  New  Orleans,  had  been  in 
real  estate,  a  form  of  investment  that  could  not 
very  readily  be  made  available,  and  that,  moreover, 
could  not  be  concealed  from  the  enemy.  As  intimated 
in  the  letters  to  his  sister,  he  had  tried  at  the  last  to 
save  in  cotton  all  that  he  had  left.  But  when  he  got  to 
England  the  "six  or  seven  hundred  bales,"  which 
would  have  been  a  large  fortune,  had  shrunk  to  about 
one  hundred,  and  these  had  not  yet  arrived.  He  was 
practically  penniless  when  he  landed,  and  must  provide 
for  immediate  needs  by  his  wits,  unless  he  would  con 
sent  to  borrow.  The  editor  of  the  Daily  Telegraph 
writes  that  Mr.  Benjamin  came  to  him  with  a  letter  of 
introduction,  obtained  through  Bennett  Burleigh,  and 
continues  :  *  u  I  gave  him  forthwith  occasional  work  in 
writing  leaders  on  subjects  of  international  law  or  in- 

1  Lawley  MS. 


STABTING  LIFE  ANEW  377 

ternational  policy."  Personal  support  being  thus  pro 
vided  for,  he  was  relieved  to  find  that  his  one  hundred 
bales  of  cotton  had  really  come  out  safely  ;  though  a  poor 
remnant  of  fortune  for  him,  it  would  be  sufficient  to 
supply  the  needs  of  those  dependent  on  him.  As  for 
himself  he  could  submit  to  close  living  till  better  times 
should  arrive.  Those  ever  loyal  friends,  the  Bayards, 
wrote  to  offer  him  pecuniary  assistance,  to  which  he  re 
plied  (October  20th)  :  "I  cannot  describe  to  you,  my 
dear  friend,  how  deeply  I  am  touched  by  the  kind  and 
generous  offer  of  yourself  and  son,  and  if  I  needed  aid, 
there  is  no  one  from  whom  I  could  consent  to  receive 
pecuniary  assistance  sooner  than  yourselves.  Fortu 
nately  this  is  not  the  case.  I  was  very  poor  when  I 
landed  here,  and  had  barely  enough  to  support  my 
family  for  a  few  months.  I  have  been  lucky  enough  to 
receive,  however,  a  hundred  bales  of  cotton  that  have 
escaped  Yankee  vigilance  ;  and  the  price  here  is  so 
high  that  it  has  given  me  nearly  twenty  thousand  dol 
lars,  besides  which  I  have  made  already  almost  ten 
thousand  dollars  by  means  of  information  furnished  by 
a  kind  friend  in  relation  to  the  affairs  of  a  financial 
institution,  in  which  I  invested  my  little  fortune,  and 
which  has  already  increased  in  market  value  fifty  per 
cent. — so  you  see  I  am  not  quite  a  beggar." 

But  his  misfortunes  were  not  at  an  end.  Some  six 
months  later  the  failure  of  Overend,  Gurney  &  Co. 
swept  away  much  of  this  little  accumulated  capital,  and 
made  more  urgent  the  need  for  adding  to  his  income, 
and  meantime  for  strict  economy  on  his  own  part.  He 
had  written  home  (December  20th):  "Tell  Sis  and 
Hatty,  to  write  me  and  let  me  know  how  money 
matters  are  getting  on,  and  not  to  hesitate  to  write  me 


378  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

if  they  are  the  least  in  want,  as  I  can  always  find  a  few 
hundred  dollars  without  pinching  myself,  and  I  have 
no  fears  of  my  ability  to  make  a  handsome  competence 
at  the  bar  here."  He  felt  he  must,  if  humanly  pos 
sible,  live  up  to  this  obligation  ;  to  do  so  he  had  to 
pinch  himself,  though  those  at  home  did  not  know  of 
it  at  the  time.  Mrs.  Bradford,  who  was  much  in  Lon 
don  during  these  months  of  struggle  before  he  could 
earn  a  competence  at  the  bar,  reports  that  he  lived  as 
simply  as  he  could  in  bachelor's  quarters,  dined  fur 
tively,  sometimes  on  bread  and  cheese,  at  cheap 
restaurants  where  it  would  hardly  do  for  him  to  be 
seen,  if  he  hoped  to  maintain  the  dignity  expected  of  a 
barrister,  and  cultivated  the  habit  of  walking  (he  did 
not  like  it),  since  the  penny  'bus  was  beneath  a  bar 
rister's  rank,  while  cabs  were  somewhat  above  this 
one's  means.  He  used  to  dine  with  Mrs.  Bradford  al 
most  every  Sunday  ;  and  after  manifest  enjoyment  of 
such  a  good  dinner,  in  a  moment  of  post-prandial  re 
laxation  once  confessed  to  her  something  of  these  little 
economies.  But  he  was  not  of  a  sort  to  make  a  parade 
of  his  troubles,  nor  did  he  let  them  mar  either  his  good 
humor  or  his  confidence  in  the  ultimate  success  of  his 
venture  at  the  English  bar. 

That  a  man  of  fifty-four,  who  had  always  used  his 
energies  to  the  full  limit  of  endurance,  and  who  must 
start  anew  the  battle  of  life  after  four  years  of  such 
labor  as  he  had  undertaken  during  the  war,  should  re 
ject  all  offers  of  pecuniary  assistance  and  all  easier 
modes  of  making  money  to  begin  again  the  practice  of 
law  in  a  foreign  land  is,  I  think,  a  truly  astonishing 
exhibition  of  pluck.  As  soon  as  opportunity  offered, 
he  started  to  look  into  the  requirements  for  admission 


STAKTING  LIFE  ANEW  379 

to  the  bar,  hoping  to  take  up  his  studies  at  once. 
"  But  I  find  one  cannot  be  allowed  to  commence  in  the 
middle  of  a  term,  and  as  the  next  term  only  begins  on 
the  llth  January,  I  shall  spend  Christmas  and  New 
Year  with  my  wife  and  child,  and  return  early  next 
month  [letter  dated  December  20th]  to  commence  my 
new  life.'7  On  January  13,  1866,  he  entered  as  a 
student  at  Lincoln's  Inn,  and  shortly  afterward  was  ad 
mitted  to  "read  law"  under  the  instruction  of  Charles 
Pollock,  later  Baron  Pollock,  who  himself  tells 
some  little  incidents  in  connection  with  this  extraor 
dinary  pupil,  to  which  we  may  turn  after  quoting  Ben- 
jamin's  own  humorous  description  of  the  Inns  of  Court 
as  then  conducted.  He  writes  to  his  old  partner  in 
New  Orleans  (February  21,  1866)  : 

"  My  dear  Bradford  :  .....  I  am  now 
entered  as  a  student  at  Lincoln's  Inn  and  do  not  ex 
pect  to  be  called  to  the  bar  till  next  fall.  I  found  on 
inquiry  that  it  would  be  more  difficult  than  I  had  an 
ticipated  to  get  a  dispensation  from  the  rules  of  the  dif 
ferent  Inns  of  Court,  all  of  which  require  the  keeping 
of  twelve  terms  ;  i.  e. ,  three  years,  before  a  call  to  the 
bar.  These  terms  are  kept,  as  you  are  aware,  simply 
by  eating  a  certain  number  of  dinners  in  the  hall  of 
the  Society  or  Inn,  that  is  to  say,  six  dinners  in  each 
term.  I  felt,  of  course,  that  I  was  not  at  all  prepared 
to  practice  under  the  English  law,  and  after  consulta 
tion  with  friends,  I  concluded  that  the  best  plan  was  to 
enter  Lincoln's  Inn,  to  keep  four  terms,  employing  my 
self  in  close  study,  and  at  the  end  of  that  time  (having 
in  the  interim  made  as  much  interest  as  I  could  manage 
with  the  Benches  of  the  Inn),  to  apply  for  a  special  ex 
ception  and  relaxation  of  the  rules  in  my  favor.  In  the 
meantime  I  am  making  enough  to  pay  for  my  personal 
expenses  by  an  engagement  to  contribute  one  leading 
article  a  week  to  one  of  the  daily  papers,  for  which  I 


380  JITDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

am  paid  £5  per  week,  and  am  thus  enabled  to  devote 
the  small  sum  that  I  was  able  to  save  from  the  wreck 
to  the  maintenance  of  my  family  till  I  can  obtain  some 
practice  at  the  bar.  I  think  I  have  enough  with  close 
economy  to  get  through  three  years,  and  by  that  time 
may  be  able  to  secure  a  decent  practice.  I  could  now 
make  £600  or  £800  a  year  by  consenting  to  become 
sub-editor  of  the  paper  I  refer  to,  but  that  would  take 
up  nearly  all  my  time  and  prevent  my  preparation  for 
the  bar.  I  therefore  restrict  myself  to  one  article  a 
week,  although  they  offer  to  pay  me  for  as  many  more 
as  I  choose  to  write,  not  exceeding  three  a  week. 

"  It  will,  I  know,  interest  you  to  learn  what  were 
the  forms,  etc. ,  attending  my  admission  to  the  Inn.  So 
I  shall  even  incur  an  extra  postage  and  enclose  you  the 
regulations.  I  had  to  pay,  on  admission,  the  following 
sums  :  stamps  £25  2s  6d,  lectures  £5  5s  Od,  admission 
fee  £5  12s  6d,  printed  form  £1  Is  Od,  making  a  total 
of  £37  Is  Od.  I  had  then  to  deposit  £100  as  security 
that  I  would  pay  for  my  dinners.  The  next  step  was 
to  enter  a  barrister's  chambers  with  a  view  to  learn 
the  course  of  practice,  and  for  this  the  fee  was  £105. 
I  am  now  in  the  chambers  of  Mr.  Charles  Pollock,  son 
of  the  Chief  Baron  of  the  Exchequer,  Sir  Frederick 
Pollock.  I  am  very  kindly  treated  on  all  sides,  and 
was  invited  by  the  Chief  Baron  to  spend  a  day  with 
him  at  his  country  seat  at  Hatton.  We  went  down  on 
Saturday  p.  M.  and  returned  on  Monday  morning,  and 
I  spent  a  most  charming  day,  the  old  gentleman,  al 
though  eighty-three  years  old,  being  as  lively  and 
sportive  as  a  boy. 

"  You  would  be  greatly  amused  to  see  our  dinner  at 
Lincoln's  Inn.  There  are  tables  at  the  head  of  the 
room  for  the  Benchers,  who  are  the  old  leaders  of  the 
bar,  such  as  Lord  Brougham,  Lord  St.  Leonards,  Sir 
Eoundell  Palmer,  Sir  Hugh  Cairnes,  etc.,  etc.  Next 
come  tables  for  the  barristers,  of  whom  some  forty 
or  fifty  always  are  found  at  dinner.  Next  the  students, 
to  the  number  of  about  one  hundred  and  fifty,  includ- 


STARTING  LIFE  ANEW  381 

ing  your  humble  servant,  all  seated  at  long  tables,  and 
dressed  in  stun0  gowns,  which  the  waiters  throw  over 
us  in  the  antechamber  before  we  enter  the  dining-hall. 
To  each  four  persons,  who  constitute  a  mess,  the  waiter 
serves  a  dinner  composed  of  soup,  one  joint  and  vege 
tables,  one  sweet  dish,  and  cheese.  A  bottle  of  sherry 
or  port  at  choice  is  allowed  to  each  mess  (fiery  stuff  it 
is),  and  bitter  beer  ad  libitum.  The  charge  for  the 
dinner  is  two  shillings.  No  one  at  mess  helps  another, 
but  the  etiquette  is  each  in  turn  helps  himself,  one  be 
ing  first  for  soup,  the  next  first  for  the  joint,  and  so  on. 
One  dines  almost  every  day  with  some  stranger,  but 
the  rule  is  that  all  are  presumed  to  be  gentlemen,  and 
conversation  is  at  once  established  with  entire  aban 
don,  as  if  the  parties  were  old  acquaintances. 

"  When  called  to  the  bar,  I  shall  take  the  Northern 
Circuit,  which  includes  Liverpool,  where  I  hope  to  get 
my  first  start  with  the  aid  of  some  of  our  old  clients 
there." 

The  late  Baron  Pollock,  whose  reminiscences  I  have 
before  referred  to,1  tells  of  the  impression  Benjamin 
made  upon  one  of  his  sisters  on  that  visit  to  his  father, 
when  Mr.  Mason  accompanied  him.  She  had  expected 
to  see  a  man  of  the  conspirator  type,  or  perhaps  like 
Jefferson  Davis  :  "  To  my  surprise,  when  he  entered 
the  room,  I  saw  a  short,  stout,  genial  man,  of  decidedly 
Jewish  descent,  with  bright,  dark  eyes,  and  all  the  po 
liteness  and  bonhomie  of  a  Frenchman,  looking  as  if 
he  had  never  had  a  care  in  his  life."  Baron  Pollock 
also  tells  how,  having  at  first  declined  Benjamin  as  a 
pupil  because  he  already  had  two  in  his  small  cham 
bers,  he  was  brought  to  reconsider  this  decision  by  his 
father7  s  remark  that  the  American  had  no  need  to  learn 
law,  only  to  see  something  of  the  practice  of  the  Eng- 

lGreen  Bag,  Sept.,  1898. 


382  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

lish  courts  and  to  meet  members  of  the  bar.  And 
one  of  the  first  pieces  of  work  Benjamin  did  in  his  of 
fice  impressed  him  strongly  with  the  learning  and  read 
iness  of  the  student.  The  Metropolitan  Policej  to  whom 
he  was  counsel,  sent  him  a  paper  asking  his  opinion, 
u<as  to  the  searching  of  prisoners,'  involving  the 
right  of  the  police  to  search  such  persons  in  their  cus 
tody  before  they  have  been  convicted  of  any  crime,  for 
different  purposes,  — as,  for  instance,  to  find  dangerous 
weapons,  stolen  property,  or  possibly  to  take  from  a 
drunken  man  his  watch  or  other  valuables  for  their 
protection.  I  was  leaving  for  court  and  threw  it 
across  the  table  to  Benjamin,  saying,  l  Here  is  a  case 
made  for  you,  on  the  right  of  search  '  (alluding  to  the 
Trent  affair)  .  .  .  Benjamin  took  the  papers,  and 
at  once  set  to  work  to  consider  the  authorities  and  deal 
with  the  questions  with  such  purpose  that  when  I  re 
turned  from  court  they  were  all  disposed  of.  The  only 
fault  to  be  found  was  that  the  learning  was  too  great 
for  the  occasion,  going  back  to  first  principles  in  justi 
fication  of  each  answer.  Many  years  after,  I  was  told 
that  the  opinion  was  held  in  high  respect,  and  often  re 
ferred  to  by  the  police  at  the  Home  Office." 

With  all  the  proverbial  English  conservatism  and  re 
spect  for  established  rules,  the  authorities  were  wise 
and  generous  enough  to  see  that  it  would  be  absurd  to 
tax  the  digestion  of  such  a  man  by  the  perfunctory 
eating  of  six  dozen  dinners  as  a  fit  preparation  for  the 
practice  of  a  profession  in  which  he  was  already  a  vet 
eran.  The  only  obstacle  might  have  been  his  foreign 
nationality  ;  but  this  was  readily  disposed  of,  for  he 
had  been  born  of  British  parents  and  under  the  British 
flag,  and  once  a  Briton  always  a  Briton  was  an  axiom 


STAETIKG  LIFE  ANEW  383 

that  swept  aside,  as  if  they  had  never  been,  the  forty- 
odd  years  of  citizenship,  and  the  services  in  the  Senate  of 
a  foreign  power.  i  i  By  the  influence  of  Lords  Justices 
Turner  and  Giffard,  of  Page  Wood  (Lord  Hatherly), 
and  Sir  Fitzroy  Kelly,  Benchers  of  the  Society, 
the  Secretary  of  the  Confederacy  was  dispensed  from 
the  regular  three  years  of  unprofitable  dining,  and 
called  to  the  bar  of  Lincoln's  Inn  in  Trinity  term, 
(June  6)  1866.  »l 

1  London  Times,  May  9,  1884. 


CHAPTEE  XIV 

A  NEW  HOME  AND  NEW  FAME 

BEFORE  attempting  to  give  such  a  condensed  sketch 
as  our  limits  allow  of  the  phenomenal  success  of  this 
young  barrister  of  fifty -five,  it  will  be  well  to  sum  up 
the  peculiar  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  his  posi 
tion.  First,  of  the  disadvantages,  the  chief  and  most 
obvious  are  his  being  a  stranger,  an  exile  under  a  po 
litical  ban,  past  the  prime  of  life,  and  poor.  The  pov 
erty  his  own  skill  and  tireless  industry  could  be  relied 
upon  to  offset  and  finally  to  overcome  ;  and  the  buoy 
ant  youthful  spirit  that  had  always  been  his  was  yet 
unimpaired.  His  past  record,  politically,  in  America, 
while  it  might  earn  him  the  sympathy  of  those  who 
had  favored  the  Confederacy,  did,  it  is  alleged,  make 
the  government  slower  to  accord  him  the  fitting  re 
ward  of  his  abilities,  and  so  may  be  said  to  have  im 
peded  his  progress.  His  being  an  alien  was  kindly 
forgotten ;  he  himself  testifies  to  the  cordiality  and 
consideration  with  which  a  generous  bar  always 
treated  him.  "From  the  first  days  of  his  coming," 
said  Sir  Henry  James,  "he  was  one  of  us.'7 

As  for  the  advantages,  the  obvious  are  his  own  ability 
and  determination  to  succeed.  But  we  should  not  for 
get  the  long  years  of  peculiarly  varied  experience  in 
America,  nor  the  special  training  in  French  and 
Spanish  law.  Moreover,  from  the  difference  in  the 
practice  of  the  English  courts,  with  solicitors  and  bar 
risters,  the  one  preparing  the  facts  of  the  case  and  the 


A  NEW  HOME  AND  NEW  FAME    385 

other  concerned  only  with  the  law  and  the  pleading, 
he  derived  another  advantage  ;  for  in  his  old  home,  of 
course,  he  had  been  both  solicitor  and  barrister,  and  so 
was  familiar  with  the  duties  of  each  and  habituated  to 
more  careful  and  thorough  preparation  than,  perhaps, 
may  have  been  customary  with  his  British  brethren. 
On  these  points  Baron  Pollock  speaks  as  follows : 1 
"  One  great  and  early  advantage  held  by  Benjamin  was 
this— that  he  was  .  .  .  educated  within  the 
state  of  Louisiana,  .  .  .  and,  the  law  taught 
and  administered  within  it  was  that  which  took  its 
origin  in  the  code  of  Justinian,  and  was  afterward 
adopted  by  the  nations  of  Europe,  and  continued  to  be 
the  law  of  France  until  the  Code  Napoleon.  The 
principles  and  practice  of  this  great  system  of  law 
Benjamin  knew  and  appreciated  thoroughly,  and  he 
was  at  all  times  ready  to  point  out  its  leading  features, 
and  how  they  differed  in  principle  from  English  law. 
This  also  gave  him  a  distinct  position  superior  to  his 
brother  advocates  when  arguing,  before  our  judicial 
committee  of  the  privy  council,  appeals  from  those  of 
the  English  colonies  of  French  origin  which  were 
ceded  to  England  before  the  code.  .  .  .  The  pro 
fession  and  duties  of  barrister  and  solicitor,  which  in 
England  are  separate,  are  in  America  discharged  by 
one  and  the  same  person.  .  .  .  Benjamin  .  .  . 
had  for  years  been  a  member  of  ...  a  legal 
partnership.  His  clients  were  numerous,  their  busi 
ness  being  principally  of  a  mercantile  character,  and 
few  men  had  a  sounder  or  wider  range  of  knowledge 
and  experience  of  the  law-merchant,  including  ship 
ping,  insurance,  and  foreign  trading,  than  Benjamin, 

1  Green  Bag,  Sept.,  1898. 


386  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

long  before  lie  ever  thought  of  leaving  America  and 
coming  to  England." 

Here  now  is  the  late  Confederate  secretary  entering 
on  his  new  career,  with  such  special  advantages  and 
disadvantages  as  I  have  sought  to  indicate.  After 
some  little  delay  and  trouble  in  securing  suitable 
chambers,  he  settled  in  those  he  was  to  occupy, 
4  Lamb  Buildings,  for  the  remainder  of  his  active  life. 
u  Unlike  most  newly-called  men,"  says  Baron  Pollock, 
"  he  was  not  long  allowed  to  be  idle,  although  for  some 
time  he  was  more  occupied  in  answering  cases  and 
advising  on  evidence  than  by  holding  briefs  in  court. 
One  of  the  first — if  not  the  very  first — pieces  of  work 
which  Benjamin  did  will  illustrate  his  great  experience 
and  untiring  energy.  An  old  established  ship  insurance 
club  was  desirous  of  having  its  rules,  which  were  very 
lengthy,  remodeled.  The  annual  meeting  of  the  club 
was  at  hand,  and  the  time  remaining  was  so  short  that 
two  experienced  counsel,  who  had  for  some  years  past 
acted  for  it,  declined  the  service,  although  some  con 
siderable  fee  was  marked  on  the  papers.  Benjamin's 
name  was  mentioned,  and  the  instructions  were  sent  to 
him  late  one  evening.  Most  men  would  probably  have 
looked  up  the  rules  of  other  similar  clubs  in  order  to 
collate  them  and  exhaust  every  source  of  improvement. 
Not  so  Benjamin.  His  own  knowledge  of  the  require 
ments  told  him  what  was  wanting  ;  and  the  very  next 
morning,  commencing  after  an  early  breakfast,  and 
never  pausing  for  a  midday  meal,  he  worked  on 
steadily,  and,  shortly  before  eight,  the  hour  at  which 
he  usually  dined,  the  rules  were  complete,  written  out 
in  his  own  neat  hand,  currente  calamo,  with  scarce  an 
alteration  or  correction  from  beginning  to  end,  as  if  he 


A  NEW  HOME  AND  NEW  FAME    387 

had  been  composing  a  poem.  I  doubt  if  any  draughts 
man  within  the  walls  of  the  two  Temples  could  have 
done  this  so  efficiently  within  the  same  time. ' ' 

To  Mr.  Mason,  with  whom  he  had  formed  a  closer 
friendship  during  the  trying  months  immediately  suc 
ceeding  his  arrival  in  England,  he  wrote  *  briefly  of 
his  beginnings  in  the  new  field  :  "  I  have  as  you  know 
been  called  to  the  bar,  and  have  chosen  the  Northern 
Circuit,  which  embraces  Liverpool.  I  have  attended 
assizes  once  at  Liverpool,  and  have  no  reason  as  yet  to 
complain,  though  I  have  done  very  little,  as  my  call 
was  just  before  the  long  vacation.  But  Michaelmas 
term  commences  on  the  29th  inst.,  and  I  may  have  a 
chance  to  appear  in  some  cases.  My  time  is  spent  in 
close  study,  and  we  have  not  had  a  game  of  whist  since 
your  departure.  I  am  as  much  interested  in  my  pro 
fession  as  when  I  first  commenced  as  a  boy,  and  am 
rapidly  recovering  all  that  I  had  partially  forgotten  in 
the  turmoil  of  public  affairs." 

As  he  had  hoped,  he  was  not  long  without  practice 
in  the  courts,  beginning  in  this  Michaelmas  term.  At 
the  close  of  his  career  before  the  bar  he  gratefully  re 
called  the  day  when  he  first  appeared  as  junior  coun 
sel  to  Sir  W.  B.  Brett,  "  before  the  late  Lord  Justice 
Lush,  to  whom  I  had  not  then  the  honor  of  being 
known,  [but]  that  learned  judge  wrote  me  immediately 
a  kind  and  affectionate  note,  congratulating  me  on 
seeing  me  holding  my  first  brief,  and  expressing  a 
hope  it  would  be  the  precursor  of  many  more.  I  had 
no  reason  to  suppose  that  he  even  knew  me,  and  yet  he 
was  prompt  to  recognize  that  a  word  from  him  would 
be  of  inestimable  value  to  me  at  that  time  as  an  en- 

1  Oct.  25,  1866. 


388  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

couragement."  l  From  the  first,  too,  he  determined 
that  his  necessities  should  not  be  allowed  to  cheapen 
his  services.  It  is  related  that  a  well-known  firm  of 
solicitors,  whose  favor  might  be  most  valuable  to  him, 
sent  in  a  batch  of  papers  with  a  request  for  his 
opinion,  and  a  fee  of  five  guineas.  When  their  clerk 
called  for  them  a  few  days  later  he  remarked  that 
there  must  be  some  mistake  ;  the  tape  had  not  even 
been  untied.  "  Not  at  all,"  said  Mr.  Benjamin,  "  the 
fee  proffered  covered  taking  in  the  papers,  but  not  ex 
amining  them."  The  u  mistake  "  was  remedied  when 
the  clerk  returned  with  an  additional  five  and  twenty 
guineas.1 

In  no  way,  however,  can  I  give  the  reader  a  clearer 
conception  of  the  years  of  struggle  for  a  livelihood,  nor 
of  the  gallant,  tender  heart  that  made  the  fight,  than 
by  the  letters  he  was  writing  to  his  family  and  friends 
at  this  time.  Since  the  more  important  happenings  of 
his  daily  life  are  all  chronicled  therein,  we  may  once 
again  almost  dispense  with  other  narrative ;  while  into 
their  very  texture,  so  that  excision  would  likely  re 
move  something  vital,  are  woven  the  loving,  playful, 
half-boyish  allusions  to  little  incidents  and  doings 
of  the  home  circle  in  New  Orleans  of  which  he  was  an 
actual  member  no  more.  The  one  from  which  I  shall 
now  quote  is  to  Mrs.  Kruttschnitt,  and  dated,  4  Lamb 
Buildings,  Temple,  llth  April,  1867,  after  he  had  been 
almost  a  year  at  the  bar.  The  first  page  or  two  deal 
with  matters  of  family  interest, — how  he  has  "  fallen 
desperately  in  love  with  your  little  blossom  Alma, 
whom  I  have  never  seen,  but  I  can  imagine  from  the 

1  London  Times,  July  2,  1883.        2  Generation  of  Judges,  p.  196. 


A  NEW  HOME  AND  NEW  FAME    389 

photograph  what  a  darling  cherub  she  must  be  "  ;  how 
he  must  know  all  that  each  and  every  member  of  the 
household  is  doing;  how  she  must  send  him  Mr. 
Kruttschnitt's  articles  on  microscopy,  "for  I  like  to 
read  everything,  although  I  know  little  or  nothing 
about  the  microscope  ;  ...  he  would  write  noth 
ing  but  the  conscientious  result  of  careful  and  accurate 
observation. " 

Then  he  turns  to  his  own  affairs :  u  I  have  been 
spending  the  last  month  on  circuit  at  Manchester  and 
Liverpool,  and  only  got  back  this  morning  to  cham 
bers  in  the  Temple.  I  give  you  at  the  head  my  address, 
which  will  be  unchanged  now  for  a  long  time,  as  I 
have  taken  a  seven  years'  lease.  .  .  .  As  I  have 
so  little  to  do  at  the  bar  compared  with  my  former  pro 
fessional  life,  I  am  turning  author  and  have  in  prepara 
tion  a  law  work  which  will  be  ready  for  publication  I 
hope  in  November  or  December  next,  and  will  bring 
me  into  more  prominence  with  the  profession  and  per 
haps  secure  a  more  rapid  advance  in  getting  business. 
As  poor  Kitt's  article  gave  you  the  face-ache,  I  shall 
not  upset  you  entirely  with  my  law  book  j  but  I  sup 
pose  some  copies  of  it  will  reach  New  Orleans,  and  you 
can  read  the  title-page  and  look  at  the  outside  without 
much  risk  of  serious  injury.  .  .  . 

"I  must  now  close,  darling,  and  leave  open  for  you 
nay  letter  to  Hatty  for  the  rest  of  the  news.  Tell  Alma 
to  mind  not  to  get  close  to  me.  for  I'll  eat  her  up,  and 
then  she  can't  squeeze  my  life  out." 

On  June  5th  he  writes  to  Miss  Harriet  Benjamin  four 
full  pages  of  his  fine  script  that  tell  about  the  famous 
Paris  Exhibition  of  that  year  (he  had  but  a  two  days' 
glimpse  of  it),  which  we  have  not  space  to  quote.  It 


390  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

is  only  by  an  occasional  allusion  we  learn  from  him 
that  he  made  good  his  promise  to  help,  as  always,  in 
the  support  of  his  sisters.  ' 1 1  got  the  letter  of  Lionel 
acknowledging  the  remittance,"  he  says,  and  he  con 
tinues  : 

"I  have  been  over  to  Paris,  for  two  or  three 
days  to  see  my  family  before  their  departure  for 
the  south  of  France,  where  they  will  spend  the  sum 
mer,  and  we  will  rent  our  apartments  during  the 
Exhibition.  .  .  . 

"  We  have  all  been  in  great  jubilee  here  at  the  news 
of  our  poor  President's  release  from  his  shameful  cap 
tivity.  I  have  not  yet  had  a  letter  from  him  but  am 
expecting  one  every  day,  as  I  am  eager  to  learn  how 
he  is,  whether  his  health  is  improving,  and  whether 
his  constitution  has  been  undermined  by  his  sufferings. 

"  I  am  getting  along  tolerably  well  in  my  profession, 
barely  making  my  expenses,  but  I  think  I  see  that  my 
reputation  is  growing  and  that  the  future  is  brighten 
ing.  I  work  hard,  but  it  is  a  happy  life  for  me  to  be 
absorbed  in  my  studies  and  business,  and  to  have  no 
harassing  anxieties  to  disturb  my  labors.  I  am  getting 
too  old  to  care  now  for  anything  except  ease  and  tran 
quillity,  with  means  sufficient  to  live  in  comfort,  but 
without  any  desire  for  splendor,  or  show,  or  what  are 
called  pleasures." 

The  pretense  of  complete  absorption  and  the  satis 
faction  of  all  cravings  in  hard  work  was,  doubtless,  for 
the  benefit  of  the  home  folk, — whom  it  did  not  de 
ceive.  They  knew  that  he  was  capable  of  hard  work, 
indeed,  but  that,  as  he  himself  confessed,  he  "  loved  to 
bask  in  the  sun  like  a  lizard,"  being  always  by  na 
ture  eminently  sociable  and  fond  of  worldly  pleasures. 
After  some  brief  excursions  into  aristocratic  circles, 
however,  during  the  first  six  or  eight  months  of  his 


A  NEW  HOME  AND  NEW  FAME    391 

stay  in  London,  when  he  had  the  felicity  of  dining 
with  his  political  idol,  Gladstone,  and  of  meeting  a 
"  crowd  of  titled  and  fashionable  guests,"  whose  "  tone, 
manners  and  customs  I  found  just  what  I  would  have 
expected, — quiet,  easy,  courteous  and  agreeable  " — he 
resolutely  declined  social  attentions.  i  i  I  have  no  time 
to  yield  to  pleasures,"  he  wrote  home  in  the  letter1 
from  which  I  have  quoted,  ' l  till  I  have  secured  some 
lucrative  business."  General  Taylor  was  rather  put 
out  with  him,  says  Mrs.  Bradford,  because  he  declined 
the  honor  of  meeting  the  Prince  of  Wales. 

But  though  too  busy  to  yield  to  pleasure  for  himself, 
he  yet  had  time  to  spare  to  give  others  pleasure.  A 
typical  little  passage  from  a  letter  of  February  22,  1868, 
shows  the  great  lawyer  busily  engaged  in  hunting  up 
rare  stamps  for  his  small  nieces  and  nephews  in  New 
Orleans  :  "  I  searched  in  vain  for  some  time/'  he  writes 
with  all  the  exuberant  joy  of  the  youngster  who  has 
treasure  trove,  ...  "  but  by  a  very  lucky  chance 
my  eye  fell  on  the  little  advertisement  that  I  enclose, 
and  I  lost  no  time  in  going  to  the  place,  which  I  be 
lieve  is  the  only  place  in  this  great  world  of  a  city 
where  they  could  be  found.  So  now  they  will  get 
Chinese,  and  Egyptian,  and  Turkish  !  !  ! " 

It  is  worth  noting  that,  once  the  suggestion  was  made 
to  him  that  stamps  would  please  the  children,  he  seems 
never  to  have  forgotten  it ;  there  are  stamps  of  all  kinds 
sent  in  numerous  letters  for  the  next  dozen  years, — till 
the  children  at  home,  indeed,  must  have  been  far  too 
grown  up  to  care  about  them,  though  they  would  not 
hurt  " Uncle  Ben's"  feelings  by  intimating  as  much. 
In  this  same  letter  he  continues  :  "I  am  looking  forward 

1  Dec.  20, 1865. 


392  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

to  the  day  when  restored  peace  to  our  unhappy  South 
will  enable  me  to  devote  a  long  vacation  to  a  full 
month's  visit  to  you  all,  and  when  I  shall  have  nothing 
to  do  but  be  petted  and  stuffed,  and  get  no  scoldings 
unless  my  appetite  fails." 

He  gives  sage  counsel  about  the  boys,  with  quite  as 
much  interest  and  affection  as  if  they  were  his  own, — 
how  they  "must  be  made  to  take  an  education,  not  be 
allowed  to  fancy  a  profession  or  business  yet,  for  boys 
are  really  incapable  of  forming  judgments  of  such 
things,  and  only  long  to  get  into  business  in  order  to 
seem  grown  up  ;  let  it  be  a  good  education  first ;  if  you 
will,  let  them  come  to  me  ;  after  they  are  fitly  educated, 
then  business  or  a  profession,  what  you  will."  Here 
he  adds  something  of  more  personal  bearing :  1 1  My 
book  is  nearly  finished,  but  the  nearer  I  get  to  the  end, 
the  more  fastidious  I  become  about  correcting,  amend 
ing,  and  improving  it.  I  do  not  think  it  will  be  out 
before  June ;  but  who  told  you  that  it  had  a  jaw-break 
ing  name  ?  It  is  a  simple  Treatise  on  Sale  under  the 
English  law,  which  is  very  different  from  the  law  of 
Louisiana,  and  the  subject  quite  a  difficult  and  trouble 
some  branch  of  professional  learning  here." 

The  book  over  which  he  was  toiling,  and  from 
which,  not  without  good  reason,  he  expected  much  in 
creased  reputation,  was  the  famous  "Treatise  on  the 
Law  of  Sale  of  Personal  Property,  with  Eeference  to 
the  American  Decisions,  to  the  French  Code  and  Civil 
Law."  It  went  through  three  editions  before  the  au 
thor's  death,  and  became  a  classic  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic  as  "Benjamin  on  Sale."  The  selection  of 
the  subject  in  itself  showed  acuteness  of  judgment ;  for 
this  extremely  difficult  question  had  not  been  ade- 


A  NEW  HOME  AND  NEW  FAME         393 

quately  discussed  ;  and  in  its  treatment,  involving,  as 
the  preface  explained,  i l  an  attempt  to  develop  the  prin 
ciples  applicable  to  all  branches  of  the  subject,"  there 
was  wide  scope  not  only  for  the  accumulations  of  varied 
learning  and  experience  incident  to  such  a  life  as  Ben 
jamin's  had  been,  but  for  the  display  of  that  power  of 
comprehension,  of  logical  and  perspicuous  develop 
ment  of  first  principles  for  which  he  was  remarkable, 
though  the  English  public  had  yet  seen  but  little  of  it  in 
him.  It  was  this  intellectual  power,  the  clear  percep 
tion  of  essential  rules  in  their  practical  application,  that 
won  for  the  book  its  immediate  popularity  with  the 
legal  profession,  and,  we  may  add,  has  preserved  that 
high  standing.  Soon  after  its  publication,  "  Baron 
Martin,  when  taking  his  seat  one  morning  upon  the 
bench,  asked  to  have  Mr.  Benjamin's  work  handed  to 
him.  i  Never  heard  of  it,  my  Lord, '  was  the  answer  of 
the  chief  clerk.  '  Never  heard  of  it ! '  ejaculated  Sir 
Samuel  Martin  ;  '  mind  that  I  never  take  my  seat  here 
again  without  that  book  by  my  side.'  "  ' 

We  shall  see  from  the  letters  how  grateful  to  the 
author  was  the  vogue  of  the  work,  and  how  it  brought 
him  speedily  more  practice  with  increased  reputation. 
But  the  first  one  from  which  I  shall  quote  has  again 
to  do  with  family  affairs  : 2  u  Tell  darling  little  Alma 
that  uncle  won't  have  her  laughed  at,  and  that  she  is 
perfectly  right  in  saying  that  the  l  Syringe  came  down 
like  a  wolf  on  the  fold,'  and  that  when  I  come  to  play 
with  her  on  my  lap,  I'll  just  give  the  'schlague*  to 
any  one  that  makes  her  cry.  I  want  her  for  my  own 
pet.  ...  I  will  not  permit  myself  to  doubt  that  I 

1  London  Daily  Telegraph,  Feb.  10,  1883. 

2  June  21, 1869. 


394  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

shall  have  the  chance  of  embracing  you  all  next  year." 
But  at  the  beginning  of  the  next  year, 1  in  a  long  letter 
in  which  he  sent  many  messages  to  little  Alma,  and 
rare  stamps  saved  by  his  daughter  Ninette  for  her 
cousin  Julius,  and  some  accumulated  American  stamps 
from  his  own  correspondence  to  buy  Alma  ice-cream  ; 
in  which  he  reviewed  and  commended  the  progress  of 
his  nephews ;  in  which  he  hoped  Mrs.  Levy  would  be 
consoled  for  her  rheumatism  by  a  little  grandson,  he 
wrote  : 

11 1  long  beyond  measure  to  see  you  all  once  more, 
but  I  am  plainly  to  be  disappointed  this  year.  The 
simple  truth  is  that  I  cannot  afford  the  visit.  I  had 
anticipated  from  the  growth  of  my  reputation  at  the 
bar  here  and  from  the  assurances  of  those  who  ought 
to  know,  that  I  would  already  have  been  in  the  receipt 
of  an  income  sufficient  for  support  at  all  events.  But 
the  growth  of  business  here  is  so  very  slow,  and  the 
competition  so  severe,  that  the  attorneys  give  their 
briefs,  whenever  they  possibly  can,  to  barristers  who 
are  connected  or  related  in  some  way  with  them  or 
their  families  ;  and  in  an  old  country  like  England 
these  family  ties  are  so  ramified  that  there  is  hardly  an 
attorney  who  has  not  in  some  way  a  barrister  whom  it 
is  his  interest  to  engage.  I  therefore  have  but  little 
chance  for  a  brief  whenever  it  can  be  given  else 
where,  and  this  accounts  for  the  difficulty  under  which 
any  one  in  the  world  must  labor,  if  not  connected  in 
some  way  with  the  attorneys  and  their  families.  I  can 
not  get  along  with  less  than  £1,400,  say  about  $7,000 
a  year,  including  my  professional  expenses  at  the 
Temple  for  rent,  clerk  hire,  bar-mess,  robing-room, 
wigs  and  gowns,  etc.,  etc.,  which  are  endless.  I  had 
hoped  strongly  that  by  this  year  at  furthest  I  should  be 
able  to  make  both  ends  meet,  but  I  have  not  yet 

1  Feb.  8,  1870. 


A  NEW  HOME  AND  NEW  FAME    395 

reached  that  point,  though  I  see  a  more  decided  in 
crease  in  my  receipts  than  I  have  hitherto  perceived. 
If  I  had  not  written  my  book,  I  should  be  '  nowhere ' 
in  the  race,  but  that  has  done  me  an  immensity  of 
good,  and  will  give  me  further  fruits  of  business  and  rep 
utation,  though  I  barely  clear  the  costs  of  publication 
and  make  no  money  out  of  it.  I  think  from  the  pres 
ent  aspect  of  things  that  I  shall  nearly  succeed  in  not 
getting  behindhand  this  year,  and  if  so,  niy  subsequent 
career  will  become  more  rapidly  prosperous,  if  I  pre 
serve  my  health,  which  is  excellent,  — quite  as  good  as 
ever.  I  am  now  Queen's  Counsel  for  the  County  of 
Lancashire  only,  which  is  very  important  as  far  as 
Liverpool  business  is  concerned,  but  I  hope  within 
twelve  months  to  have  the  same  promotion  for  all  Eng 
land,  so  that  my  London  business  will  be  much  more 
profitable,  and  I  shall  then  feel  perfectly  easy  in  my 
mind  as  to  pecuniary  matters.  I  write  these  things 
for  no  one  but  the  family,  but  I  can  keep  no  secrets  from 
you  all,  knowing  how  much  you  will  be  interested  in  all 
that  concerns  me.77 

The  same  hopeful  tone  distinguishes  his  reference  to 
himself  in  a  long  letter  to  Mr.  Mason,  *  from  which  we 
may  quote.  The  greater  portion  of  it  is  taken  up  with 
news  of  and  inquiries  for  his  old  associates  of  the  Con 
federacy,  and  with  a  reply  to  a  request  from  Colonel 
Charles  Marshall,  of  General  Lee's  staff,  for  certain 
data  ;  I  omit  all  but  the  passages  of  special  signifi 
cance  : 

"  I  am  doing  here  in  London  not  only  as  well  but 
even  better  than  I  dared  to  hope,  and  am  now  at  last 
in  receipt  of  an  income  sufficient  for  my  family,  with  a 
fair  prospect  of  again  laying  up  a  little  store  for  them 
when  I  am  no  longer  able  to  work,  in  the  place  of  what 

1  Feb.  8,  1871. 


396  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

our  Northern  friends  confiscated  for  me.  I  have,  how 
ever,  worked  very  hard,  and  have  been  closely  strait 
ened  for  means  while  striving  to  attain  my  present 
position.  Now  as  regards  the  other  part  of  your  letter. 
Please  say  to  Colonel  Marshall  that  I  perfectly  remem 
ber  our  acquaintance  during  the  war,  and  that  I  deem 
him  entitled  in  every  respect  and  on  every  ground  to 
apply  to  me  for  information,  or  for  any  other  service  I 
can  render  him  ;  and  above  all  for  any  aid  that  I  can 
afford  in  the  pious  labor  he  has  undertaken.  Upon 
some  points  I  can  give  him  information,  but  upon 
others  my  memory  is  a  blank,  as  to  order  of  dates  and 
such  like  details.  I  have  hardly  anything  to  which  I  can 
refer  to  refresh  my  memory,  but  I  have  the  original  re 
port  made  by  the  Commissioners  who  went  to  Hamp 
ton  Eoads,  and  a  bound  copy  of  the  President's  Mes 
sages  to  Congress,  which  you  (who  were  in  our  secrets) 
know  to  have  been  written  by  me,  as  the  President  was 
too  pressed  with  other  duties  to  command  sufficient 
time  for  preparing  them  himself." 

Keturning  to  more  personal  matters,  we  find  that  in 
the  course  of  the  same  year  in  which  he  wrote  thus  to 
Mr.  Mason,  he  was  able  to  give  an  even  better  report 
of  his  financial  condition  to  his  own  family.1  But 
coupled  with  this  is  the  first  mention  of  ill  health.  He 
had  been  singularly  free  from  even  trifling  bodily  ail 
ments  all  his  life,  though  now  he  says  : 

1 1  After  getting  through  my  work  on  circuit  I  left 
for  Paris  on  the  23d  August,  and  have  had  a  good 
long  vacation  of  over  seven  weeks,  and  am  now  back 
to  hard  work.  A  good  part  of  my  vacation,  however, 
was  spoiled  by  an  attack  of  neuralgic  or  rheumatic 
pains  in  the  side  and  back  which  kept  me  in  nearly 
constant  pain  for  several  weeks  ;  but,  fortunately,  by 
the  aid  of  hot  sulphurous  baths,  I  got  rid  of  the  attack 

1  Oct.  15,  1871, 


A  NEW  HOME  AND  NEW  FAME    397 

and  have  been  free  from  it  now  for  three  weeks,  so 
that  I  hope  there  will  be  no  relapse.  Singularly 
enough,  Natalie  had  been  suffering  from  a  similar  at 
tack,  only  much  more,  for  several  months.  She  was 
in  bed  for  two  months  unable  to  use  the  knee  joints  at 
all,  but  she  also  has  recovered,  from  the  same  treat 
ment,  and  when  I  left  them  at  the  beginning  of  the 
week,  the  whole  family  were  in  excellent  health  and 
spirits.  .  .  . 

"  I  am  happy  to  tell  you,  my  darlings,  that  although 
my  success  at  the  bar  is  absurdly  exaggerated  in  some 
accounts  that  I  have  seen  in  the  newspapers,  I  have 
really  l  turned  the  corner '  at  last,  and  that  my  re 
ceipts  for  the  last  twelve  months  have  exceeded  ten 
thousand  dollars,  so  that  I  have  been  able  to  lay  up 
something  after  paying  expenses.  It  is  now  probable 
that  there  will  be  a  substantial  increase  for  the  future, 
and  that  if  my  health  lasts,  I  shall  in  four  or  five  years 
feel  that  I  am  'safe,7  and  that  in  the  event  of  my 
death  a  comfortable  subsistence  will  be  secure  for  my 
family.  I  think  my  reputation  at  the  bar  is  increas 
ing  and  I  can  see  that  my  circle  of  clients  is  daily 
widening." 

A  little  later  he  writes  to  Miss  Benjamin  : l 

u  I  am  sadly  in  arrears  with  my  correspondence  with 
you  all,  and  I  know  that  my  dearest  Penny  has  good 
reason  to  scold,  but  I  have  really  for  some  time  past 
been  under  high  pressure  of  work,  and  I  avoid  as  much 
as  possible  using  my  eyes  by  gaslight.  I  don't  mean 
to  say  that  there  is  anything  the  matter  with  them, 
but  I  have  so  much  writing  to  do,  that  they  get  fa 
tigued  before  I  finish  niy  day's  work,  and  then  it  is  not 
a  pleasure  to  continue  writing.  .  .  . 

"  I  have  been  in  Paris  for  two  or  three  days  since  I 
last  wrote  you.  I  ought  to  have  had  the  whole  of 
Christmas  week  for  my  holiday,  but  a  client  got  hold 

1  Feb.  21,  1872. 


JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

of  me  and  gave  me  one  hundred  guineas  for  three  days 
of  my  time,  and  I  could  not  afford  the  luxury  of  a  hol 
iday  at  that  rate,  so  I  was  cheated  out  of  half  my 
week. 

' '  Pen  says  that  she  will  celebrate  her  silver  wedding 
and  Ernest's  majority  next  year,  and  if  I  dared  look 
forward  so  far,  it  would  rejoice  me  beyond  measure  to 
be  of  the  party.  But  while  the  political  excitement 
lasts,  and  while  the  Senate  rejects  amnesty  bills,  and 
the  South  is  kept  crushed  under  negro  rule,  it  sickens 
me  to  think  of  the  condition  of  things.  After  the 
Presidential  election  it  may  be  that  the  general  am 
nesty  bill  will  pass  ;  but  it  is  a  wonder  to  me  that  so 
much  bitterness  against  the  conquered  can  endure 
after  the  lapse  of  seven  or  eight  years.7' 

The  longed-for  amelioration  in  the  pitiable  condition 
of  Louisiana  did  not  come  so  soon,  nor  was  he  suffi 
ciently  secure  of  his  position  at  the  bar  to  take  the  va 
cation  and  go  to  New  Orleans  in  the  summer  of  1872  ; 
but  a  letter  of  August  10th  gives  the  most  cheering 
news  he  had  yet  sent  home  : 

"I  have  had  high  professional  promotion  lately.  A 
number  of  the  judges  united  in  recommending  to  the 
Lord  Chancellor  that  I  should  have  a  '  patent  of  pre 
cedence,'  which  gives  me  rank  above  all  future  Queen's 
Counsel  and  above  all  Sergeants  at  Law  (except  two  or 
three  who  already  have  such  patents),  and  Her  Majesty 
upon  the  transmission  of  this  recommendation  by  the 
Lord  Chancellor,  who  endorsed  it,  was  pleased  to  issue 
her  warrant  directing  that  such  a  patent  should  be 
granted  to  me. 

' '  I  received  it  in  person  from  the  Lord  Chancellor 
at  his  own  house,  and  he  gave  it  to  me  with  some  very 
flattering  expressions.  I  need  hardly  say  that  as  the 
law  journals  and  the  Times  have  contained  some  ar 
ticles  on  the  subject  it  will  be  of  immense  value  to  me 


A  NEW  HOME  AND  NEW  FAME         399 

in  my  profession  in  various  ways,  both  in  increased  in 
come  and  in  greater  facility  of  labor ;  for  you  must 
know  that  a  '  leader '  who  has  a  patent  of  precedence 
has  not  half  as  hard  work  as  a  'junior,7  because  it  is 
the  business  of  the  junior  to  do  all  the  work  connected 
with  the  pleadings  and  preparation  of  a  cause,  and  the 
leader  does  nothing  but  argue  and  try  the  causes  after 
they  have  been  completely  prepared  for  him. 

"  As  the  ladies  always  want  to  know  all  details  of 
ceremonies,  I  will  say  for  the  gratification  of  the  fem 
inine  mind  that  my  patent  of  precedence  is  engrossed 
on  parchment,  and  to  it  is  annexed  the  great  seal, 
which  is  an  enormous  lump  of  wax  as  large  and  thick 
as  a  muffin,  enclosed  in  a  tin  box,  and  the  whole  to 
gether  contained  in  a  red  morocco  box  highly  orna 
mented.  As  nothing  of  this  kind  is  ever  done  under  a 
monarchy  without  an  endless  series  of  charges,  etc.,  it 
cost  me  about  £80,  or  $400,  to  pay  for  stamps,  fees, 
presents  to  servitors,  etc.,  etc.  Now  for  the  reverse 
side  of  the  medal. 

1  '  I  have  now  to  wear  a  full  bottomed  wig,  with 
wings  falling  down  on  my  shoulders,  and  knee  breeches 
and  black  silk  stockings  and  shoes  with  buckles,  and 
in  this  ridiculous  array,  in  my  silk  gown,  to  present 
myself  at  the  next  levee  of  Her  Majesty  to  return 
thanks  for  her  gracious  kindness.  In  the  same  dress  I 
am  also  to  be  present  at  the  grand  breakfast  which  the 
Lord  Chancellor  gives  to  Her  Majesty's  Judges  and  to 
the  leaders  of  the  bar  every  year  in  October  (at  the  end 
of  the  month),  when  the  Michaelmas  Term  begins. 
Fortunately,  I  have  three  months  for  bracing  up  my 
nerves  to  the  trial  of  making  myself  such  an  object, 
and  as  it  is  usual  to  have  photographs  made  of  one's 
self  on  these  occasions  I  will  send  some  to  enable  you 
all  to  laugh  at  i  how  like  a  monkey  brother  looks  in 
that  hideous  wig.' 

"  Before  I  forget  it,  I  must  just  mention  that  I  don't 
want  anything  of  this  sort  that  I  write  for  the  family 
to  get  into  the  papers,  for  if  it  were  repeated  here,  it 


400  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

would  be  known  that  such  details  must  have  originated 
with  me,  and  I  should  be  suspected,  to  my  great  mor 
tification,  of  writing  puffs  of  myself,  than  which  noth 
ing  is  deservedly  regarded  with  more  contempt.  Of 
course,  the  fact  of  my  promotion  being  announced 
could  do  no  harm,  but  none  of  the  details  which  can 
come  only  from  me  must  get  into  the  papers." 

Much  encouraged  by  this  signal  manifestation  of  the 
estimate  placed  upon  him  in  his  new  home — there  were, 
of  course,  congratulatory  letters,  and  flattering  articles 
in  the  press  and  law  reviews — Mr.  Benjamin  went  to 
work  with  renewed  zest.  It  was  said  that  he  owed  his 
success  to  the  argument  in  the  case  of  Potter  vs.  Eankin, 
in  the  House  of  Lords,  when  Lord  Hatherly  was  so  im 
pressed  with  his  ability  that  he  at  once  ordered  the 
patent  made  out.  Certainly,  it  became  before  many 
more  years  almost  a  matter  of  course  that  in  every  im 
portant  case  taken  to  the  Courts  of  Appeal,  Privy 
Council  or  House  of  Lords,  Mr.  Benjamin,  Q.  C.,  should 
be  retained  as  counsel. 

Curiously  enough,  "the  doctors  disagree"  in  their 
diagnosis,  if  we  may  so  call  it,  of  his  peculiar  tal 
ents  as  a  lawyer.  Several,  including  the  writer  of  the 
excellent  sketch  in  the  Times  of  May  9, 1884,  concur  that 
Mr.  Benjamin  was  not  markedly  successful  before  a 
jury.  Since  our  account  of  the  purely  legal  part  of 
his  life  is  designedly  condensed,  let  us  here  disregard 
chronology  to  give  such  of  the  facts  about  technical  or 
professional  matters  as  may  be  presumed  to  interest  the 
lay  reader.  The  character  of  Mr.  Benjamin's  practice 
in  America,  as  has  been  repeatedly  stated,  was  princi 
pally  civil,  not  criminal,  involving  especially  points 
of  commercial  law.  In  England  it  would  be  natural  to 


A  NEW  HOME  AND  NEW  FAME    401 

expect  him  to  follow  the  same  bent,  even  if  we  did  not 
recall  that  he  expected,  and  did  get,  much  of  his  earlier 
business  through  Liverpool  merchants.  The  writer  in 
the  Times  states — and  I  quote  him  as  giving  a  fair  sum 
mary  from  one  who  was  a  contemporary  : 

1  i  When  he  first  settled  in  London  he  practiced  in  all 
the  courts,  and  made  many  masterly  addresses  to  juries  ; 
but  in  the  very  peculiar  and  difficult  art  of  examining 
and  cross-examining  witnesses  and  managing  a  case  at 
Nisi  Prius,  he  did  not  shine.  This  requires  a  special 
experience  of  the  peculiar  class  of  jurymen  who  are  to 
be  influenced.  .  .  .  But  in  arguments  before  the 
court  which  depended  on  the  scientific  treatment  of 
legal  questions  Mr.  Benj  amin's  superiority  became 
early  established.  After  a  few  years  he  confined  him 
self  to  these.  Auson  vs.  the  Northwestern  Railway 
was  his  last  case  at  Nisi  Prius.  Thenceforward  he  re 
stricted  himself  to  the  Court  in  Bane  or  Courts  of  Ap 
peal,  but  was  likewise  often  taken  into  Chancery  to 
argue  before  an  Equity  Judge.  Still  later,  feeling  the 
absolute  necessity  of  restricting  his  exertions,  Mr.  Ben 
jamin  refused  to  go  into  any  court  other  than  the  House 
of  Lords  and  the  Privy  Council  except  for  a  fee  of  100 
guineas,  and  a  client  having  demanded  a  consultation 
at  his  own  house,  the  fee  of  300  guineas  was  fixed.  The 
Privy  Council  was,  perhaps,  his  favorite  tribunal ;  his 
wide  acquaintance  with  foreign  systems  of  law  quali 
fied  him  in  an  eminent  degree  to  deal  with  the  cases 
from  the  colonies  and  dependencies  of  Great  Britain 
which  come  before  the  Judicial  Committee  in  Downing 
Street.  His  great  faculty  was  that  of  argumentative 
statement.  He  would  so  put  his  case,  without  in  the 
least  departing  from  candor,  that  it  seemed  impossible 


402  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN" 

to  give  judgment  except  in  one  way.  It  must  be  con 
fessed  that  this  was  a  dangerous  power,  and  sometimes 
imposed  on  himself.  His  l  opinions '  were,  in  conse 
quence,  sometimes  unduly  sanguine  or  at  least  seemed 
so  in  cases  which  he  had  not  the  opportunity  of  argu 
ing  himself.  When  he  did  argue  he  often  justified  by 
his  advocacy  advice  which  had  seemed  the  hardiest. 
The  Franconia  was  perhaps  the  best-known  of  his 
cases.  It  dealt,  to  some  extent,  with  international  law, 
in  which,  having  been  not  only  a  lawyer  but  a  states 
man,  he  was  at  home  ;  but  it  was  a  criminal  case,  and 
so  of  a  class  with  which  he  was  not  usually  concerned. 
More  characteristic  examples  will  be  revealed  by  a 
glance  at  the  columns  of  the  Times  between  1872  and 
1883,  or  by  dipping  into  the  pages  of  the  i  Appeal 
Cases. '  Here  we  find  him  arguing  questions  about  bills 
of  exchange,  a  husband's  liability  for  his  wife's  debts 
(Debenham  vs.  Mellon),  the  duties  of  the  charterer  of 
a  ship,  the  explicit  rights  of  the  Caledonian  and  North 
British  Eailways  under  their  acts,  the  reopening  of 
accounts  closed  in  New  Zealand  nine  years  before,  the 
perjury  of  Thomas  Castro,  otherwise  Arthur  Orton, 
otherwise  Sir  Eoger  Tichborne,  etc." 

Eegarding  his  non-success, — comparative,  of  course 
— as  a  jury  lawyer,  other  English  observers  concur 
with  the  Times.  Some  note  that  his  accent  was 
decidedly  American,  and  his  voice  not  pleasant, — a 
view  we  must  believe  mistaken  considering  the  unani 
mous  testimony  to  its  beautiful  timbre  before  he  crossed 
the  Atlantic,  though  it  is  fair  to  note  that  Mrs.  Davis 
remarks, l  u  When  I  saw  him  in  England  much  of  the 

1  As  elsewhere,  from  private  letters  to  the  author,  and  in  Law- 
ley  MS. 


A  NEW  HOME  AND  NEW  FAME    403 

well-remembered  music  of  his  voice  had  fallen  silent. " 
Others,  however,  commented  on  his  wonderful  power 
of  exposition,  of  presenting  facts  :  "  He  makes  you  see 
the  very  bale  of  cotton  that  he  is  describing  as  it  lies 
upon  the  wharf  at  New  Orleans."  l  And  Baron  Pol 
lock  gives  several  anecdotes,  too  long  to  quote,  to  il 
lustrate  his  skill  in  handling  witnesses,  remarking,  in 
direct  contradiction  of  the  opinions  offered  above : 
"  Although  not  eloquent  as  a  speaker,  he  always 
showed  a  great  experience  in  the  conduct  of  a  Nisi 
Prius  issue,  and  thoroughly  knew  the  rules  of  the  game  ; 
clear  in  the  statement  of  facts,  an  effective  cross- exam 
iner,  and  cautious  in  the  extreme  of  expressing  any 
false  or  figurative  surroundings,  he  presented  his  client's 
case  with  great  force  to  a  jury. '  > 2  On  the  whole,  there 
fore,  it  would  seem  that  the  predilection  for  courts  which 
tried  without  juries,  and  his  unquestioned  mastery  of 
that  sort  of  pleading,  misled  those  who  thought  that  he 
was  not,  or  would  not  have  been,  so  successful  in  hand 
ling  juries. 

In  conclusion,  Lord  James  of  Hereford  comments 
upon  Mr.  Benjamin's  "mode  and  method  of  argument 
[as]  peculiar  and  strange  to  "  the  English  Judges  when 
he  first  came.  "  His  habit  was  to  commence  his  argu 
ments  with  an  abstract  lecture  upon  the  law  affecting 
the  case  before  the  court.  Most  elementary  principles 
would  be  very  minutely  explained.  If  the  court  dif 
fered  from  or  doubted  any  of  his  propositions,  the 
tribunal  was  informed  that  they  certainly  were  wrong, 
and  that  it  was  desirable  they  should  have  the  state  of 
the  law  more  fully  explained  to  them."  Sir  Henry 

1  Daily  Telegraph,  February  10,  1883. 

2  Green  Bag,  Sept.,  1898,  p.  400. 


404  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

James,  as  he  then  was,  took  occasion  in  private  to  call 
Mr.  Benjamin's  attention  to  a  fault  that  might  work 
him  harm :  "  Eight  well  he  accepted  all  I  had  to  say, 
and  agreed  that  he  had  not  yet  fallen  into  our  ways."  * 
His  custom,  noted  even  while  he  was  practicing  in 
New  Orleans,  of  beginning  his  arguments  by  a  bold 
statement  of  the  propositions  he  intended  to  maintain, 
which  sometimes  needed  all  of  his  subtlety  of  logic 
in  order  to  seem  reasonable  at  all,  was  indirectly 
responsible  for  one  little  episode  that  made  a  deep  im 
pression  in  England.  It  was  in  the  case  of  the  London 
and  County  Bank  vs.  Eatcliffe,  which  Mr.  Eussell  Eob- 
erts,  one  of  the  junior  counsel,  declares  to  have  been 
exceedingly  puzzling  in  its  facts,  that  Mr.  Benjamin 
had  his  difficulty,  May  19, 1881.  As  senior  counsel  for 
the  appellants  in  the  House  of  Lords,  Mr.  Benjamin 
insisted  on  proceeding  with  his  argument  as  he  had 
planned  it,  in  spite  of  signs  of  impatience  on  the  part 
of  the  members.  At  length,  upon  his  stating  one  of  the 
propositions  that  he  meant  to  defend,  Lord  Selborne, 
the  Lord  Chancellor,  remarked  sotto  voce,  but  in  a  tone 
that  reached  the  counselor's  ear:  u Nonsense!" 
Changing  color  slightly,  says  Mr.  Eoberts,  from  whom 
I  take  these  facts,2  Mr.  Benjamin  "  proceeded  to  tie  up 
his  papers.  This  accomplished,  he  bowed  gravely  to 
the  members  of  the  House,  and  saying,  i  That  is  my 
case,  my  Lords,7  he  turned  and  left  the  House."  The 
junior  counsel  was  therefore  compelled  to  go  on  as 
best  he  might.  "On  the  following  day  the  respond 
ent's  counsel  were  heard,  and  a  reply  being  called  for, 
Mr.  Horace  Davey,  Q.  C.,  on  the  23d  day  of  May,  rose 
to  address  the  House,  Mr.  Benjamin  being  absent.  On 
1  Lawley  MS.  *  Lawley  MS. 


A  NEW  HOME  AND  NEW  FAME    405 

Mr.  Davey  7s  rising,  the  Lord  Chancellor  said,  'Mr. 
Davey,  it  is  unusual  for  the  House  to  hear  three  coun 
sel  for  the  same  party,  and  we  have  already  heard  Mr. 
Benjamin  and  Mr.  Eussell  Roberts.  I  notice  Mr.  Ben 
jamin7  s  absence,  however,  and  I  fear  that  it  may  be 
attributable  to  his  having  taken  umbrage  at  an  unfor 
tunate  remark  which  fell  from  me  during  his  argument, 
and  in  which  I  referred  to  a  proposition  he  stated  as 
4  nonsense.7  I  certainly  was  not  justified  in  applying 
such  a  term  to  anything  that  fell  from  Mr.  Benjamin, 
and  I  wish  you  to  convey  to  him  my  regret  that  I 
should  have  used  such  an  expression.7  .  .  .  Mr. 
Davey  conveyed  to  Mr.  Benjamin  what  had  been  said 
by  Lord  Selborne,  and  induced  him  to  write  a  note  to 
Lord  Selborne  acknowledging  the  apology.77 

This  little  incident  has  echoed  in  nearly  every  one  of 
the  English  reminiscences  of  Mr.  Benjamin.  The 
prompt  and  unhesitating  resentment  of  an  affront  to  his 
dignity  (all  the  more  unwarranted  in  view  of  his  own 
unvarying  courtesy)  even  from  the  Woolsack  made  a 
strong  impression,  and  increased  respect  for  him.  It 
is  no  doubt  fortunate  that  the  occasion  for  this  action  on 
his  part  arose  late  in  his  career,  when  he  was  firmly 
established  in  the  front  rank,  perhaps  at  the  head  of 
the  bar ;  for  if  it  had  come  earlier,  he  would  assuredly 
have  acted  in  the  same  way  ("he  was  like  fire  and 
tow,77  says  Mrs.  Davis,  "and  sensitive  about  his 
dignity77),  and  then  popular  approval  might  not  have 
been  so  certainly  on  his  side. 

Having  thus  run  ahead  of  the  man  in  surveying  the 
course  of  the  lawyer,  let  us  hark  back  to  some  of  the 
details  of  his  life  during  these  years.  On  August  9, 
1874,  he  wrote  to  Mrs.  Kruttschnitt : 


406  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

' '  As  soon  as  the  assizes  are  finished,  say  about  26th 
to  28th  of  this  month,  I  leave  at  once  for  Paris  for  the 
marriage  of  Ninette,  which  will  take  place  early  next 
month.  Of  course  I  cannot  but  feel  anxious  at  thus 
giving  up  my  only  child,  but,  as  far  as  human  fore 
sight  can  predict,  I  have  assurance  that  the  match  will 
prove  happy.  Captain  de  Bousignac,  her  intended,  is 
represented  on  all  sides  as  one  of  the  most  promising 
officers  of  the  French  army.  At  the  age  of  thirty-two 
he  has  acquired  a  distinguished  position  on  the  general 
staff  from  his  merits  both  as  an  artillery  and  engineer 
officer  ;  he  is  of  excellent  family,  irreproachable  habits, 
beloved  by  all  around  him  for  his  frank,  gay  and 
amiable  character,  and  I  know  no  better  test  of  a  man 
than  his  possession  of  the  affection  of  those  most 
intimate  with  him.  .  .  .  He  is  stationed  at  Ver 
sailles  in  the  war  department,  only  half  an  hour  from 
Paris,  and  as  long  as  he  remains  there,  the  new  couple 
will  live  with  us.  ...  By  giving  up  all  my 
savings  I  have  been  able  to  settle  on  Ninette  three 
thousand  dollars  a  year,  so  that  her  future  is  now 
secure  against  want,  and  I  must  now  begin  to  lay  up  a 
provision  for  the  old  age  of  my  wife  and  self.  I  under 
take  this  new  task  with  courage,  because  we  shall  not 
require  a  great  deal,  and  the  practice  of  my  profession 
is  now  so  much  more  lucrative  than  it  ever  was  before, 
that  I  hope  in  two  or  three  years  to  see  the  end  of 
necessary  labor,  and  to  be  able  to  work  as  little  or  as 
much  as  I  please. " 

In  the  next  letter,  October  24th,  he  gives  a  full  ac 
count,  almost  feminine  in  its  attention  to  detail  (though 
he  declines  even  the  attempt  at  describing  the  toilettes), 
of  the  wedding,  which  took  place  on  September  7th. 
The  bride  spent  most  of  that  winter  with  her  mother, 
Captain  de  Bousignac  coming  to  and  from  Orleans, 
whither  he  had  been  transferred ;  in  the  spring  they 
opened  apartments  of  their  own  in  that  place. 


A  NEW  HOME  AND  NEW  FAME         407 

That  Benjamin  set  to  work  with  a  will  to  add  to  his 
savings,  and  that  in  doing  so  he  did  not  forget  to  con 
tinue  his  generosity  to  all  who  had  any  claim  on  him, 
may  be  seen  from  a  letter  of  March  17,  1875,  in  which 
he  sends  a  present  of  one  thousand  dollars  for  one  of  his 
nieces  about  to  be  married,  and  says  of  himself :  "  I 
have  just  finished  the  trial  of  a  cause  which  lasted 
eight  days,  and  on  Sunday  I  was  at  my  desk  from 
breakfast  till  two  hours  past  midnight,  with  only  an 
interval  of  half  an  hour  for  taking  some  light  food,  as 
one  cannot  dine  when  so  deeply  absorbed.'7  In  the 
same  letter  he  records  his  satisfaction  with  his  daughter's 
match  ;  "  her  husband  is  all  that  I  could  desire."  And 
it  may  be  added  that  the  years  did  not  diminish  his 
gratification.  He  recurs  once  more  to  the  hope  of 
coming  to  America :  ' i  You  say,  my  dearest,  that  I 
never  now  speak  of  visiting  you  all.  I  never  can  consent 
to  go  to  New  Orleans  and  break  my  heart  with  witness 
ing  the  rule  of  negroes  and  carpet-baggers.  I  have 
hoped  year  by  year  that  some  change  would  be  effected 
which  would  place  decent  and  respectable  men  at  the 
head  of  the  administration  of  affairs,  and  it  seems  to 
me  that  the  time  is  now  fast  approaching.  I  long  and 
yearn  to  press  you  all  to  my  heart  once  more,  and  for 
some  of  us  at  least  age  is  creeping  on  and  not  much 
time  is  to  be  lost." 

"I  don't  know  what  you  mean,"  he  writes  to  Miss 
Benjamin  some  months  later  (June  6th),  "  by  saying 
you  suppose  that  I  am  having  a  little  holiday.  I  am 
scarcely  able  to  get  to  dinner  before  nine  or  ten  o'clock 
at  night  once  a  week,  and  generally  my  whole  Sunday 
is  also  occupied."  And  in  the  next  sentence,  as  if 
apologizing  for  this  complaint  of  his  hard  work,  he 


408  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

goes  on  :  "  But  I  am  in  depressed  spirits  on  account  of 
the  condition  of  poor  Jules,"  his  brother-in-law,  who 
was  wasting  away  with  the  same  disease  that  ultimately 
caused  Mr.  Benjamin's  death.  Her  brother's  distress 
ing  state  greatly  affected  Mrs.  Benjamin,  with  whom  he 
lived,  and  who  had  no  other  companion  now  that  her 
daughter  had  gone. 

Many  a  page  might  be  filled  with  the  little  things 
from  these  home  letters,  but  I  must  give  only  gleanings 
here  and  there.  He  constantly  refers  to  his  profes 
sional  progress  with  a  pardonable  pride  in  the  successes 
achieved,  and  yet  modestly  withal.  For  example:1 
"I  have  been  acquiring  a  good  deal  of  reputation 
lately  in  a  great  cause  that  I  had  to  argue  before  four 
teen  judges,  presided  over  by  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  of 
England,  in  behalf  of  the  captain  of  a  German  ship,  the 
Franconia.  As  it  involved  a  question  of  international 
law,  the  papers  were  full  of  it,  and  I  received  many 
compliments."  Early  in  1877  (March  18th)  he  an 
nounces  that  he  does  not  have  it  so  hard  now : 
"I  very  seldom  have  to  work  after  seven  in  the 
evening,  and  from  ten  in  the  morning  to  seven  in  the 
evening  is  no  excess  of  labor  "  !  Two  years  later,2  he 
announces  that  he  has  cut  off  a  large  part  of  his  prac 
tice  in  the  lower  courts,  "  confining  myself  chiefly  to 
the  House  of  Lords  and  other  Appeal  Courts.  .  .  . 
I  am  beginning  again  to  go  into  society,  which  I  had 
relinquished  for  years,  and  to  accept  invitations  to 
dinner  which  I  had  habitually  declined.  I  am  all  the 
better  for  it."  During  this  year  he  was  building  his 
house,  at  No.  41  Avenue  d'Jena,  Paris,  and  writes 
amusing  letters  about  his  difficulties  in  getting  things 

1  July  16,  1876.  9  March  23,  1879. 


A  NEW  HOME  AND  NEW  FAME         409 

done.  "I  was  maliciously  pleased,"  he  writes1  to 
Mrs.  Kruttschnitt,  "  with  your  account  of  your  tribu 
lations  with  the  workmen  in  your  house,  as  I  have 
gone  through  the  same  trouble  for  weeks,  and  left  Paris 
with  everything  in  dire  confusion.  .  .  .  The  Paris 
workmen  of  all  classes  began  l  strikes,'  and  first  the 
joiners,  next  the  plumbers,  next  the  gas-fitters,  next 
the  'fumistes,'  or  fireplace  and  stove  workers,  next 
the  plasterers,  etc. ,  etc. ,  refused  to  do  any  work,  while 
my  contractors  were  in  utter  despair,  unable  to  advance 
a  step."  By  desperate  exertions,  they  managed  to  get 
into  the  bedrooms,  leaving  the  rest  to  be  completed, 
with  the  attendant  confusion  and  discomfort:  "We 
all  came  to  the  conclusion  that  no  violence  of  language 
or  feeling  could  do  justice  to  the  occasion,  so  we 
finished  by  laughing  at  each  other7  s  doleful  faces  and 
went  on  in  the  best  way  we  could.  .  .  .  We  shall  be 
housed  like  princes,  but  the  cost  will  be  greater  than  I 
supposed,  and  including  the  additional  furniture,  etc., 
etc.,  I  don't  get  off  for  less  than  $80,000.  However, 
all  is  now  paid  for." 

Benjamin  took  special  pride  in  this  comfortable 
mansion,  the  first  that  he  could  really  call  a  home  of  his 
own,  since  the  happy  days  of  "  Bellechasse  "  ;  and  as 
the  years  wore  on  he  chafed  more  and  more  under  the 
strain  of  his  practice,  began  to  yield  to  the  weight  of 
age,  and  longed  with  increasing  ardor  for  absolute 
retirement  from  the  great  world.  He  writes,  just  be 
fore  the  Easter  holidays  in  1880  :  tl  I  have  felt  work 
more  this  winter  than  ever  before,  and  in  addition  to 
advancing  age,  which  of  course  must  tell  on  me,  I  at 
tribute  much  to  the  dreadful  weather  which  we  had 

1  Nov.  6, 1879. 


410  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

early  in  the  season  and  which  carried  off  very  many 
persons  advanced  in  life.  .  .  .  We  are  in  the 
midst  of  the  turmoil  of  a  general  election  here,  and  it 
amuses  me  to  look  on,  as  I  do  not  take  the  slightest 
part  in  politics  and  shall  never  again  be  induced  to 
emerge  from  the  quietude  of  private  life.  Half  my 
brethren  of  the  bar  are  candidates,  and  great  efforts 
have  been  made  to  induce  me  to  become  a  candidate, 
but  I  laugh  them  off,  and  both  sides  claim  me,  because 
I  belong  to  neither." 

It  was  very  shortly  after  this  that,  while  on  a  brief 
visit  to  Paris  in  May,  he  met  with  an  accident 
from  which  he  never  fully  recovered.  Though  some 
times,  in  moments  of  depression,  feeling  his  age,  he 
was  still  far  from  seeming  a  man  on  the  verge  of 
seventy,  and  usually  moved  with  a  step  as  elastic  as  if 
he  were  yet  in  his  prime.  He  tells  very  briefly  what 
happened,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Bayard,  written  when  the 
more  serious  consequences  were  just  making  themselves 
manifest : l 

"  I  now  feel  able  to  answer  your  welcome  and  affec 
tionate  letter  of  28th  March.  I  have  been  very  ill,  but 
am  now  greatly  improved,  though  I  am  told  I  must  not 
hope  for  complete  recovery.  ...  In  May,  1880,  I 
was  thrown  to  the  ground  with  great  violence  in  a  fool 
ish  attempt  to  jump  off  a  tram-car  in  rapid  motion. 
My  right  arm  was  torn  from  the  socket,  the  shoulder 
blade  broken,  and  the  left  side  of  the  forehead  fractured  ; 
indeed,  but  for  my  hat,  which  fortunately  remained  on 
my  head  and  acted  as  a  buffer,  I  must  have  been 
killed." 

In  fact,  he  had  stepped  off  the  swiftly  moving  tram 
as  he  had  been  in  the  habit  of  doing  thirty  years  before 

i  Aug.  2,  1883. 


A  NEW  HOME  AND  NEW  FAME    411 

in  New  Orleans ;  the  thirty  years  made  some  differ 
ence,  however,  and  furthermore,  losing  his  presence  of 
mind  when  he  first  stumbled,  he  held  on  to  the  hand 
rail  of  the  car,  and  was  dragged  a  considerable  dis 
tance.  As  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Bayard,  his  recovery  from 
the  initial  effects  of  the  accident  was  surprisingly 
rapid.  He  was  hard  at  work  again  in  London  the 
following  winter,  and  his  physician  promised  him  a 
cure,  though  not  immediate.  He  wrote  cheerfully  of 
the  regime  prescribed  :  "I  am  made  to  take  a  liqueur 
glass  of  cognac  pure  three  times  a  day,  to  take  a  prep 
aration  of  iron  at  each  meal,  to  drink  my  claret  with 
out  water,  and  altogether  to  accustom  myself  to  getting 
a  little  t  tight '  every  day.  I  shall  soon  be  an  accom 
plished  'tippler,'  and  then  my  'cure'  will  be  com 
plete."  ' 

Indeed,  for  a  time  it  seemed  so  ;  for  after  a  success 
ful  year,  he  spent  a  i  i  very  pleasant  summer  vacation, 
[1881]  three  weeks  at  Bagneres-de-Luchon,  a  most 
charming  watering  place  in  the  Pyrenees,  and  a  month 
at  Biarritz,  a  beautiful  seashore  resort.  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  having  my  dear  child  with  me  the  whole 
time,  and  her  husband,  after  a  flying  visit  of  one  day 
at  Luchon,  got  leave  of  absence  and  spent  a  fortnight 
with  us  at  Biarritz."  Moreover,  on  a  little  trip  to 
some  friends  near  Toulouse,  there  were  dinner  parties 
almost  every  day,  ' l  followed  by  extempore  music  and 
dancing  in  the  evening,  and  this  t  old  man ?  was  made 
to  dance  by  invitations  from  the  young  ladies,  who  re 
fused  to  dance  at  all  if  he  would  not.  What  do  you 
say  to  that  ?  "  2  Of  his  profession  he  wrote  :*  "I  still 

1  Oct.  24,  1880.  2  To  Miss  Benjamin,  Nov.  4,  1881. 

8  Nov.  27,  1881. 


412  JTJDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

keep  up  my  old  jog-trot,  but  my  work  is  less  absorb 
ing.  I  have  cut  off  a  good  deal  of  my  practice  pre 
paratory  to  withdrawing,  but  my  withdrawal  now  de 
pends  entirely  on  our  success  in  getting  Ninette  and 
her  husband  back  to  live  with  us,  as  I  should  hardly 
know  what  to  do  with  myself  in  the  '  big  house '  all 
alone  with  my  poor  wife,  who  is  constantly  fretting  for 
her  daughter  when  the  latter  joins  her  husband."  In 
spite  of  efforts,  which  we  may  well  believe  to  have 
been  quietly  courageous,  to  shake  off  his  infirmities, 
they  increased  alarmingly  in  the  course  of  the  next 
year.  His  heart  became  seriously  involved,  and  he 
was  in  such  a  state  that  he  could  hardly  walk.  He 
went  over  to  spend  the  Christmas  vacation  as  usual 
with  his  family,  and  in  his  own  words  let  us  tell  of 
the  close  of  a  career  unique,  so  far  as  I  know,  in 
history  : 

"41  Avenue  d'Jena,  Paris,  12  February,  1883. 
"MY  DARLING  PENNY  : 

1 '  You  will  see  by  the  above  heading,  that  I  am 
still  here  and  this  will  be  my  address  in  future,  for  I 
have  left  the  bar  and  shall  practice  no  more. 

"  For  the  last  few  months,  new  and  strange  symptoms 
developed  themselves  in  my  condition.  I  was  troubled 
with  an  oppression  in  breathing  and  palpitation  of  the 
heart ;  my  feet  became  swollen  and  remained  so  :  my 
legs  were  so  weak  that  they  could  scarcely  sustain  my 
body,  and  Natalie  insisted  on  a  consultation  of  the 
most  eminent  physicians  of  Paris,  which  took  place 
just  a  week  ago.  After  a  close  and  careful  examina 
tion  of  all  the  vital  organs,  and  auscultation  by  the 
most  experienced,  it  was  discovered  that  the  diabetic 
affection  had  injured  the  heart,  which  had  become  en 
larged,  and  the  great  valve  of  the  aorta  had  ceased  to 
act  efficiently  so  as  to  expel  as  it  should  do,  the  blood 


A  NEW  HOME  AND  NEW  FAME    413 

which  had  passed  through  the  heart.  In  this  state  of 
things  they  advised  an  energetic  course  of  treatment 
which  I  am  now  undergoing,  but  they  specially  insisted 
on  complete  repose,  and  declared  that  the  fatigue  and  ex 
citement  of  arguing  causes  were  particularly  prejudi 
cial  and  must  be  discontinued. 

"I  had  of  course  no  alternative,  but  directed  my 
clerk  to  announce  my  retirement,  to  return  all  my  briefs 
to  my  clients,  and  to  repay  all  fees  received  in  matters 
which  I  am  unable  to  finish. 

"  I  cannot  tell  you  how  greatly  I  have  been  surprised 
and  how  deeply  I  have  been  moved  by  the  effect  of  this 
announcement.  Every  leading  London  newspaper,1 
with  the  Times  at  the  head,  has  made  my  retirement  a 
matter  of  national  concern  and  regret,  and  my  table  is 
covered  with  piles  of  letters  (some  sixty  or  seventy  at 
least)  from  my  brethren  of  the  bar,  expressing  the 
warmest  sympathy  and  regret,  and  hopes  of  my  re 
covery,  and  assurances  of  warm  friendship,  etc.,  etc. 
For  the  last  few  clays  I  have  hardly  kept  my  eyes  free 
from  tears  on  reading  these  testimonials  to  the  recti 
tude  and  honor  of  my  professional  conduct,  such  as  no 
member  of  the  English  bar  has  ever  received.  .  .  . 

"  If  my  treatment  is  at  all  successful  as  the  doctors 
anticipate,  I  shall  go  to  London  for  a  week  or  two  in 
about  a  month  to  close  up  all  my  business,  get  rid  of 
the  lease  of  my  lodgings  and  chambers  in  the  Temple, 
sell  my  furniture  and  law  library,  etc. ,  and  return  here 
free  from  all  preoccupation  that  can  cause  care,  or 
fatigue,  or  excitement ;  and  having  nothing  to  do  ex 
cept  to  assume  my  new  character  of  i  an  invalid  old 
gentleman'  taking  care  of  his  health.77 

The  expression  of  sympathy  on  the  part  of  his 
fellow-barristers  was  later  to  take  a  form  yet  more  re 
markable.  In  a  letter  to  Miss  Benjamin,  of  March  1st, 
he  writes:  "I  have  just  received  a  signal  honor 

1  The  best  is  the  sketch  in  the  Daily  Telegraph,  Feb.  10, 1883. 


414  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

from  the  English  bar.  A  letter  from  the  Attorney- 
General  informs  me  that  he  has  received  a  requisition 
signed  by  more  than  eighty  Queen's  Counsel,  and  by 
all  the  leading  members  of  the  bar  of  England,  desir 
ing  him  to  offer  me  a  public  dinner  in  order  to  take  a 
1  collective  farewell '  of  me  and  to  testify  their  high 
sense  of  the  honor  and  integrity  of  my  professional 
career,  and  of  their  desire  that  our  relations  of  personal 
friendship  should  not  be  severed.  The  correspondence 
will  be  made  public.  This  is  theirs/  time  that  such 
an  honor  has  been  extended  to  a  barrister  on  leaving 
the  profession." 

As  he  had  planned,  he  went  back  to  London  in  the 
spring  and  closed  his  offices.  Pees  to  a  large  amount 
for  unsettled  causes  were  returned  to  the  clients,  and 
business  affairs  were  put  in  order  with  that  perfect  at 
tention  to  detail  which  had  helped  so  much  to  make  his 
fame.  But  no  temptation  could  possibly  induce  him 
to  practice  again,  though  it  is  said  a  fee  of  two 
thousand  guineas  was  offered  him.  The  formal  an 
nouncement  of  his  retirement,  made  on  February  9th, 
was  treated  as  final.  There  only  remained  the  more 
personal  farewell  to  the  members  of  the  bar  at  the  din 
ner  given  in  his  honor. 

The  great  banquet1  took  place  in  the  hall  of  the 
Inner  Temple,  on  Saturday  evening,  June  30,  1883, 
with  Sir  Henry  James,  the  Attorney-General,  in  the 
chair  ;  Lord  Selborne,  the  Lord  Chancellor,  on  his  left ; 
and  Mr.  Benjamin  on  his  right.  There  were  present 
all  that  England  ranked  highest  in  the  legal  profession, 
including  such  names  as  that  of  Lord  Coleridge,  the 
Lord  Chief  Justice,  who  had  wanted  Benjamin  on  the 

1  See  London  Times,  July  2,  1883. 


A  NEW  HOME  AND  NEW  FAME          415 

bench  ;  the  Master  of  the  Rolls,  Sir.  W.  B.  Brett,  who 
had  seen  him  begin  his  career  in  English  courts  and 
now  came  to  do  honor  to  the  culmination  of  that 
career.  There  were  the  Justices  of  all  the  high  courts, 
and  a  list  of  titles  such  as  Englishmen  are  always 
pleased  to  see  in  social  Theban  phalanx,  but  which 
mean  less  to  us  than  the  "more  than  two  hundred 
members  of  the  bar,7'  without  distinction  of  party,— 
both  the  old  who  had  perhaps  been  distanced  in  the 
race  by  this  wonderful  little  Jew  from  America,  and 
the  young  to  whom  his  name  was  a  shibboleth  of  bril 
liant  success.  Many  a  rival  must  have  been  overcome 
in  the  course  of  Mr.  Benjamin's  rise  before  the  English 
courts ;  yet  not  one  manifested  any  ill  feeling.  It  is 
testimony  eloquent  on  two  points — the  generosity  of 
the  British  lawyer,  and  the  scrupulous  regard  for  the 
rights  of  his  opponents  which  had  always  marked  the 
man  they  had  met  to  honor. 

The  toasts,  not  the  viands,  were  of  course  the  pieces 
de  resistance  of  the  dinner ;  but  in  this  place  I  shall 
note  only  his  own  response.  It  was  brief,  and  marked 
by  fastidious  simplicity  of  diction,  a  characteristic  ex 
ample  of  his  manner  when  deeply  moved  ;  and  as  his 
sweet  voice  recited  the  simple  and  sincere  story  of  his 
illness,  of  his  gratitude  to  the  generous  bar  of  England, 
and  of  his  regret  at  feeling  that  he  should  meet  most 
of  them  no  more,  the  great  throng  of  gentlemen 
listened  with  rapt  attention  and  manifest  sympathy. 
I  shall  quote  but  a  fragment  of  what  he  had  to  say : 
"The  feelings  of  joy  and  gratification  [at  this  testi 
monial]  are  counterbalanced — more  than  counter 
balanced — by  the  reflection,  unutterably  sad,  that  to 
the  large  majority  of  those  present  my  farewell  words 


416  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

to-night  are  a  final  earthly  farewell — that  to  the  large 
majority  of  you  I  shall  never  again  be  cheered  by  the 
smiling  welcome,  by  the  hearty  hand-grasp,  with 
which  I  have  been  greeted  during  many  years,  and 
which  had  become  to  me  almost  the  very  breath  of  my 
life.  It  was  on  the  16th  of  December,  1832,  that  I  was 
first  called  to  the  bar ;  and  on  the  7th  of  December 
last  I  had  accomplished  fifty  years  of  professional  life." 

After  recounting  the  causes  of  his  retirement,  and  do 
ing  homage  to  those  who  had  made  possible  his  success 
he  gratefully  concludes:  "From  the  bar  of  England 
I  never,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  received  anything  but 
warm  and  kindly  welcome.  I  never  had  occasion  to 
feel  that  any  one  regarded  me  as  an  intruder.  I  never 
felt  a  touch  of  professional  jealousy.  I  never  received 
any  unkindness.  On  the  contrary,  from  all  quarters  I 
received  a  warm  and  cordial  welcome  to  which,  as  a 
stranger,  I  had  no  title,  except  that  I  was  a  political 
exile,  seeking  by  honorable  labor  to  retrieve  shattered 
fortunes,  wrecked  in  the  ruin  of  a  lost  cause.  .  .  . 
I  must  conclude  by  thanking  you  all  from  the  bottom 
of  my  heart  for  the  kind  reception  you  have  given  me 
ever  since  I  first  came  among  you  down  to  this  mag 
nificent  testimonial,  the  recollection  of  which  will 
never  fade  from  my  memory,  and  on  which  I  shall  al 
ways  love  to  dwell.  I  thank  you  all." 

Little  remains  to  be  told  ;  he  was  not  spared  to  en 
joy  even  a  full  year  of  that  home-life  for  which  he 
had  so  long  yearned  and  in  procuring  which  he  had 
performed  what  must  always  seem  prodigious  labors. 
The  summer  he  spent  chiefly  at  Le  Mans,  where 
Captain  de  Bousignac  was  stationed  j  and  here  he  ap 
peared  to  improve  so  much  that  his  family  were  hope- 


A  NEW  HOME  AND  NEW  FAME    417 

ful  of  many  more  years  for  him.  It  is  hard  to  say 
what  he  felt  himself ;  for  he  was  resolutely  cheerful  al 
ways,  took  the  brightest  view  of  things,  and  wrote  home 
the  most  reassuring  letters.  Yet  there  is  a  touch  of 
melancholy  here  and  there  that  shows  he  could  not 
really  have  cherished  many  false  hopes.  The  winter 
was  a  hard  one,  and  in  addition  to  the  depressing  effect 
of  the  weather,  Mrs.  Benjamin  was  seriously  ill.  A 
painful  operation  became  necessary,  and  he  sat  by  her 
side  and  held  her  hand  during  the  terrible  ordeal.  As 
the  spring  came  on  he  did  not  rally.  On  April  23d 
he  wrote  to  Mr.  Lawley :  "I  have  been  very  ill  (but  I 
believe  I  have  turned  the  corner  this  time),  otherwise 
I  could  not  have  left  unanswered  your  sympathetic 
and  affectionate  letter ;  but  I  have  been  quite  unable 
to  write.  For  more  than  two  months,  I  have  alter 
nated  between  my  bed  and  my  armchair ;  but  if  we 
can  only  get  rid  of  this  glacial  temperature  and  dry 
east  wind,  I  shall  get  some  strength.  What  I  require 
is  warmth — will  it  never  come  ?  "  He  had  not  turned 
the  corner :  on  Tuesday,  May  6,  1884,  the  great  and 
kindly  gentleman  died  at  his  house  in  Paris. 


CHAPTER  XV 

CHARACTER  AND  ACHIEVEMENT 

As  was  fitting  for  one  who,  in  spite  of  exalted  sta 
tion,  had  always  been  singularly  unostentatious,  the 
funeral  of  Mr.  Benjamin  was  very  simple.  Services 
were  held  at  midday  on  Saturday,  May  10th,  at  the 
Church  of  St.  Pierre  de  Chaillot,  and  the  body  was 
interred  in  the  great  cemetery  of  Pere  La  Chaise.  I 
shall  not  pause  in  this  place  to  discuss  the  question  of 
Mr.  Benjamin's  religion,  to  which  I  shall  recur.  For 
that  which  he  had  chiefly  labored,  the  comfort  of  his 
family,  it  was  found  that  there  was  ample  provision. 
His  will,  written  entirely  by  his  own  hand,  and  dated 
April  30,  1883,  devised  legacies,  all  free  of  state  dues, 
amounting  to  a  total  of  £18, 000,  apportioned  in  vari 
ous  sums  to  his  three  sisters,  to  his  brother  Joseph, 
and  to  nieces  and  nephews.  The  residue  of  his  estate 
he  left  to  "ray  said  dear  wife  Natalie  and  to  our  only 
child  Mnette,  wife  of  Captain  Henri  de  Bousignac, 
now  captain  in  the  One  Hundred  and  Seventeenth 
Regiment  of  the  line  of  the  French  army.  If  either 
my  said  wife  or  my  said  daughter  should  die  before 
me,  the  survivor  is  to  be  my  sole  residuary  devisee 
and  legatee.  I  have  no  real  estate  in  England,  but  I 
have  in  France  the  family  mansion  or  hotel  at  No.  41 
Avenue  d'Jena,  Paris,  in  which  I  have  resided  since 
my  withdrawal  from  the  bar,  and  in  which  I  contem 
plate  residing  the  rest  of  my  life."  The  will  further 


CHARACTER  AND  ACHIEVEMENT       419 

appointed  as  executors,  John  George  Witt  and  Lindsey 
Middleton  Aspland,  two  London  barristers,  by  whom 
it  was  proved  on  June  28,  1884.  The  personal  estate, 
consisting  of  various  securities,  was  appraised  by  the 
executors  at  £60,221  9s  Id.  Owing  to  the  fact  that 
Mr.  Benjamin  died  abroad,  and  had  become  domiciled 
there,  at  first  some  doubt  was  felt  as  to  where  the 
will  should  be  proved,  in  France  or  in  England.  In 
view  of  the  insistence  in  its  phraseology  on  his  resi 
dence  in  Paris,  he  evidently  meant  that  place  to  be  his 
domicile.  But  it  was  discovered  that  under  a  statute 
which  he  doubtless  had  in  mind,  "  the  will  of  a  British 
subject  domiciled  abroad  may  be  proved  in  England 
without  any  proceeding  in  the  foreign  country"; 
hence  all  difficulties  were  removed.  It  was  a  curious 
fact,  noted  by  legal  writers  at  the  time,  that  "he  was 
all  his  life  a  British  subject,  had  been  a  senator  of  the 
United  States  and  the  Confederate  Attorney-General, 
became  domiciled  in  England,  and  died  a  domiciled 
Frenchman."  1 

The  ample  fortune  thus  left  to  those  for  whom  he 
had  made  it  was  the  third  one  wrought  out  from  the 
brain  of  this  man,  who  had  begun  as  a  penniless  law 
yer's  clerk  in  New  Orleans  something  more  than  fifty 
years  before.  The  steps  in  the  accumulation  of  this 
great  wealth,  for  which,  he  told  Mr.  Lawley,  he  had 
worked  harder  than  ever  in  his  life  before,  not  barring 
even  the  toilsome  years  in  Richmond,  are  made  plain 
for  us  through  his  fee-book,2  wherein  he  kept  a  record 
of  his  earnings  from  1867  to  1882.  The  full  array  of 

1 A  Generation  of  Judges,  p.  202 ;  Albany  Law  Journal,  Vol.  30, 
p.  62. 

2  Lawley  MS.  ;  see  appendix. 


420  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

figures  would  be  but  dry  reading,  and  perhaps  puz 
zling  ;  I  therefore  give  some  of  the  items  only.  In  the 
first  year,  1866-1867,  his  fees  amounted  to  £495  12s  3d. 
Two  years  later  (1869),  in  the  course  of  the  year  when 
his  book  appeared,  they  had  doubled  :  £1, 074  (I  omit 
the  shillings  and  pence).  And  in  1871,  when  he  wrote 
that  he  had  "  turned  the  corner,"  they  were  £2,100. 
Before  the  end  of  his  next  year  the  first  promotion  as 
Queen's  Counsel  had  come,  and  bore  fruits  at  once  ;  for 
now  the  figures  are  more  than  doubled  in  one  year : 
£5,623.  From  that  time  on  the  increase  in  receipts  is 
very  rapid,  till  we  reach  £13,812  in  1876  ;  £15,742  in 
1878;  and  in  1880  the  maximum  of  £15,972.  The 
total  for  the  sixteen  years  is  £143,900,  or,  expressed  in 
round  figures  and  in  American  currency,  something 
more  than  $700,000.  Popular  fancy,  dazzled  by  the 
rapidity  of  Mr.  Benjamin's  success,  had  placed  his 
earnings  at  a  much  higher  figure  ;  they  are  surely  suf 
ficiently  amazing,  however,  without  fantastic  incre 
ment.  It  is  probable  that,  during  his  most  fortunate 
years,  from  1877  to  1882,  his  profits  in  England  ex 
ceeded  those  of  the  best  years  in  New  Orleans  ;  for 
though  the  American  lawyer,  then  as  now,  got  larger 
single  fees  than  his  British  brother,  there  was  in 
Benjamin's  case  always  a  division  with  partners  in 
America,  while  in  England  he  had  no  one  to  divide 
with,  and  by  an  automatic  arrangement  even  the  Eng 
lish  barrister's  clerk  is  provided  for  by  a  percentage 
of  the  fees.  Benjamin's  chief  clerk,  it  is  said,  got  in 
one  year  from  his  percentage  £1,200 ;  and  upon  his 
retirement  was  presented  by  him  with  £500. 

Mere  ability  to  make  money,  however,  is  but  a  poor 
gage  of  real  legal  ability.     I  have  given  in  the  course 


CHAEACTEE  AND  ACHIEVEMENT       421 

of  the  preceding  chapter  sufficient  comment  and  suffi 
cient  evidence  in  support,  I  trust,  to  establish  the  fact 
that  English  lawyers  held  the  very  highest  opinion  of 
his  intellectual  powers.  None  among  his  contempo 
raries,  indeed,  ranked  above  him  ;  and  it  was  generally 
agreed  that  only  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  his 
career  in  England  prevented  his  occupying  the  bench. 
There  was  always  a  little  hesitancy  lest  the  government 
of  the  United  States  be  oifended ;  and,  as  one  writer 
remarks,  when  he  was  young  enough  for  the  bench  he 
was  too  young  at  the  bar,  when  old  enough  at  the  bar 
he  was  already  too  far  advanced  in  years.1 

Connected  with  his  ability  as  a  lawyer,  at  least  in 
America,  was  his  power  as  a  speaker  and  as  a  writer. 
I  have  mentioned  some  of  the  English  criticisms  upon 
his  delivery  ;  certainly  no  fault  was  ever  found  with  it 
in  America.  On  the  contrary,  all  unite  in  testifying  to 
the  exquisite  melody  of  a  voice  that,  though  soft,  yet 
penetrated ;  to  the  distinctness  and  faultlessness  of  a 
rapid  enunciation  ;  and  to  the  perfection  of  simplicity 
in  manner  and  carriage,  the  complete  absence  of  ora 
torical  tricks  and  histrionic  gestures.  And  in  the 
style  of  his  writings,  whether  speeches  for  the  general 
public  audience,  speeches  in  the  Senate,  state  papers, 
or  legal  arguments,  one  finds  the  same  characteristics 
I  have  rather  frequently  noted :  lucidity,  simplicity, 
directness  of  statement,  with  sentences  usually  short, 
and  with  little  extrinsic  ornament.  As  significant  of 
this,  I  cannot  forbear  calling  attention  to  the  fact  that, 
in  all  the  numerous  citations  I  have  made  from  the 
many  varieties  of  his  writings  there  is  scarce  a  foreign 
phrase  ;  though  familiar  with  French,  he  seeks  the  fit 

1  Generation  of  Judges. 


422  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

English  word  ;  nor  does  he  resort  frequently  to  Latin, 
and  to  Spanish  and  German  not  at  all.  In  this  re 
spect,  as  indeed  in  his  fine  feeling  for  style  in  general, 
he  is  a  good  model  for  those  who  find  the  limits  of 
their  native  tongue  too  narrow  to  contain  their  thought. 
His  speeches  read  well,  and  indeed,  as  a  recent  writer 
has  remarked,1  would  entitle  him  to  rank  with  Sumner, 
Beecher,  Phillips,  or  Yancey,  as  one  of  those  who 
"  stirred  multitudes,  aroused  passions  and  fired  the 
public  heart  in  terms  not  less  eloquent  than  the  loftiest 
productions  of  Fox  or  Pitt,  of  Patrick  Henry  or  John 
Adams." 

In  considering  Benjamin  as  an  orator  and  as  a  states 
man  one  cannot  forget  the  other  great  member  of  his 
race  who  at  the  same  time  held  sway  as  statesman, 
orator,  and  novelist  in  England.  But  the  resemblances 
between  Judah  P.  Benjamin  and  Benjamin  Disraeli 
are  largely  superficial  and  of  no  significance.  The 
fastidious  dandy  whose  waistcoats  used  to  startle  the 
House,  whose  Oriental  imagination  overflows  in  Lo- 
thair,  whose  very  name,  indeed,  carries  something  of 
exotic  suggestion  with  it,  has  little  but  his  race,  and  his 
success,  in  common  with  the  hard-working,  accurate, 
modestly  attired  American  lawyer.  Their  geniuses 
were  of  different  types  ;  if  it  be  an  axiom  and  a  com 
monplace  to  say  that  the  style  is  the  man,  I  risk  it  in 
this  case,  and  need  do  no  more  than  ask  the  reader  to 
compare  a  page  of  Lothair's  or  Vivian  Gretfs  exuber 
ance  with  the  cautious  repression  of  some  of  the  pas 
sages  quoted  from  one  whom  Americans  may  call  l  i  our 
Benjamin." 

In  personal  habits,  Mr.  Benjamin  was  in  one  sense, 

The  Forum,  Oct.,  1894. 


CHAEACTEE  AND  ACHIEVEMENT       423 

indeed,  an  "  exquisite,"  though  not  of  the  Beacons- 
field  school.  Always  fastidiously  neat,  he  was  care 
ful  of  his  dress,  and  disliked  anything  in  it  that  would 
attract  attention.  Simple  black  was  therefore  his  pref 
erence;  and  the  letter  describing  his  costume  as 
Queen's  Counsel  will  show  that  he  never  got  over  his 
democratic  dislike  of  fuss  and  feathers  ;  he  even  had  a 
distaste  for  the  formal  black  evening  coat,  since  it 
usually  went  with  a  "  function."  A  similar  neatness 
characterized  his  business  habits  ;  and  of  these  his  clear 
and  almost  faultless  handwriting,  so  frequently  com 
mented  on,  is  typical.  Mr.  Witt,  his  executor,  has 
this  to  say  of  traits  that  seem  to  have  impressed  them 
selves  on  everybody  who  came  in  contact  with  Mr. 
Benjamin,  Q.  C.,  probably  the  hardest  working  mem 
ber  of  the  London  bar  :  "If  you  called  on  him  in  his 
chambers,  you  were  perfectly  sure  to  find  him  seated 
at  his  table,  writing  a  letter  with  a  gold  pen,  in  the 
best  of  style,  with  nothing  on  the  table  except  the 
note-paper  and  a  tidy  blotting  pad.  No  papers  lit 
tered  about — no  untied  briefs.  He  welcomed  you  with 
the  air  of  a  man  who  had  nothing  just  then  to  do  ex 
cept  to  enjoy  a  chat.  If  he  wanted  to  find  a  paper  for 
you,  he  unlocked  the  proper  drawer  in  his  table,  and 
at  once  handed  you  the  document.  What  a  contrast 
to  the  fussy,  no-tinie-for-anything  people,  busybody 
feeble  folk,  one  usually  comes  across.  Every  one 
knows  the  sort.  They  cannot  spare  you  a  minute  ; 
they  are  overwhelmed  with  work  ;  their  papers  strew 
the  table,  the  chair,  and  the  floor.  Mr.  Benjamin  was 
never  in  a  hurry,  never  important  with  this  big  thing 
and  that  big  thing — never  pretentious,  always  the  same 
calm,  equable,  diligent,  affable  man,  getting  through 


424  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

an  enormous  mass  of  work  day  by  day  without  ostenta 
tion  and  without  friction.  Another  trait — he  left  no 
documents.  When  I  first  became  friends  with  him  he 
told  me  that  on  his  starting  in  law  business  in  New 
Orleans,  his  partner  taught  him  that  the  secret  of 
human  happiness  was  the  destruction  of  writing. 
1  Never,'  said  he,  'keep  any  letter  or  other  document 
if  you  can  possibly  help  it.  You  only  give  yourself  in 
finite  trouble,  and  if  you  die,  you  bequeath  a  legacy  of 
mischief.  Of  course  you  may  have  a  piece  of  business 
going  on  which  compels  you  to  preserve  correspondence 
for  a  time,  but  do  not  keep  it  a  moment  longer  than  is 
absolutely  necessary. ?  He  did  not  preach  without 
practicing.  When  he  died,  he  did  not  leave  behind 
him.  half  a  dozen  pieces  of  paper.  .  .  . 

"He  was  absolutely  free  from  vanity.  His  manner 
was  simple  to  a  degree.  He  was  not  in  the  least  self- 
conscious.  He  never  gave  himself  airs — in  friendly  in 
tercourse,  in  society,  and  in  court,  the  last  thing  that 
was  in  his  mind  was  himself.  The  subject  under  dis 
cussion,  the  case  under  argument,  absorbed  him,  and 
left  no  room  for  other  thought."  1 

Mr.  Witt  and  others  tell  us,  too,  of  Mr.  Benjamin's 
" amiability  of  disposition"  ;  his  " desire  to  help  his 
brother  barristers  in  the  pursuit  of  fame  and  fortune  "  ; 
his  " kindness  of  heart,"  which,  combined  with  his 
"  high  sense  of  honor  "  and  that  rightly  beloved  Eng 
lish  "fair  play,"  immediately  disarmed  hostility,  and 
conciliated  the  good  will  of  every  one.  Baron  Pollock, 
to  give  a  specific  instance,  tells  how  Benjamin  un 
hesitatingly  and  with  precision  gave  him  an  opinion, 
in  friendship,  on  a  difficult  point  of  law ;  and  how, 
1  Lawley  MS, 


CHABACTER  AND  ACHIEVEMENT       425 

some  days  later,  he  quite  unexpectedly  found  himself 
opposed  to  Mr.  Benjamin  as  counsel  in  arguing  a  case, 
used  the  arguments  with  which  his  fellow  lawyer 
had  furnished  him,  and  won.  Mr.  Benjamin  was  in 
all  ways  of  most  generous  disposition,  desirous  to  aid 
his  friends  in  any  perplexity,  to  give  his  time  for  mere 
courtesy's,  sake,  or  to  give  his  brain,  or  to  give  money. 
He  was  lavish  in  his  expenditures  for  private  charity, 
always  willing  to  help,  it  is  said,  the  forlorn  who  ap 
pealed  in  the  name  of  the  dear  "  lost  cause  "  or  of  re 
ligion.  Of  course,  specific  instances  of  this  sort  are 
hard  to  give,  especially  in  the  case  of  one  so  reticent  to 
outsiders ;  but  a  fair  sample  seems  to  me  to  be  : 
"  Tell  Lionel  that  I  have  sent  an  order  on  him  for  one 

hundred  dollars  in  favor  of  Mrs.  L ,  the  widow 

of  a  former  District  Judge  in  New  Orleans  whom  I 
knew  in  old  times  and  who  wrote  me  a  most  pitiful 
story  of  her  distress.  .  .  .  He  can  draw  on  me  for 
the  amount.'' l 

More  than  the  cold  giving  of  money — have  we  not 
high  authority  for  thinking  so  1 — was  the  gentleness  of 
spirit,  the  consideration  for  the  feelings  of  others. 
One  little  incident,  related  by  Mrs.  Davis,1  will  illus 
trate  what  I  mean.  At  a  party  in  Eichmond  he 
happened  to  observe  a  poor  girl  who  had  retired  to  a 
corner  and  was  having  a  very  unhappy  time  over  that 
greatest  of  feminine  tragedies — her  gown  was  not 
right:  "Mr.  Benjamin  passed,  and  though  he  had 
rarely  spoken  to  her  saw  her  embarrassment,  and  sat 
down  by  her.  After  a  little  desultory  ball-room  talk 
he  said,  i  How  very  well  you  are  dressed 7  (we  did  not 

1  Letter  to  Mrs.  Kruttschnitt,  March  23,  1880. 

2  Private  letter  and  Lawley  MS. 


426  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

say  l  gowned  9  in  that  day),  '  I  could  not  suggest  any 
improvement  in  your  costume. '  He  told  me  afterward 
how  the  poor  little  creature  brightened  up,  and  how 
he  took  some  *  grist  to  her  mill ?  in  the  shape  of 
partners.  'Thus,'  said  he,  'I  made  two  green  blades 
to  grow  where  only  one  had  been  before.'  " 

"No  shade  of  emotion  in  another,"  continues  this 
lady  whose  warm  friendship  has  stood  the  test  of  years 
and  separation,  "escaped  Mr.  Benjamin's  penetration 
— he  seemed  to  have  a  kind  of  electric  sympathy  with 
every  mind  with  which  he  came  into  contact,  and  very 
often  surprised  his  friends  by  alluding  to  something 
they  had  not  expressed  nor  desired  him  to  interpret. 
.  .  .  Perhaps  I  attach  too  much  importance  to  the 
humanism  of  great  men,  but  I  have  observed  that  this 
quality  is  oftenest  found  wanting  in  men  of  great  in 
tellect.  Looking  down  from  their  great  elevation  the 
sorrows  of  the  humble  in  the  valleys  beneath  would 
naturally  escape  them  ;  but  the  gracious  sympathy  of 
men  mentally  endowed  beyond  their  fellows  is  espe 
cially  beautiful  when  it  is  used  to  lighten  the  griefs  of 
their  less  gifted  friends." 

Another  instance  of  his  thought  for  others  given  by 
Mrs.  Davis  is  somewhat  comical,  and  also  serves  to 
display  his  own  fondness  for  good  things  to  eat.  He 
was,  indeed,  a  gourmet,  not  a  large  eater,  but  most 
fastidious  in  his  taste,  relishing  extraordinarily  dainty 
and  highly  seasoned  dishes;  he  "loved  i  lollipops,'  as 
he  called  candy,  like  a  child."  On  one  occasion  he 
was  enjoying  some  special  luxuries  at  Mrs.  Davis' s 
table,  in  Richmond  days,  when  i  i  he  stopped  midway 
in  a  criticism  upon  Les  Miser ables  of  Victor  Hugo 
(which  had  just  reached  the  Confederacy)  and  whis- 


CHAKACTEE  AND  ACHIEVEMENT       427 

pered  to  me :  '  I  do  not  enjoy  my  dinner,  for  Jules 
(  his  brother-in-law,  who  lived  with  him  in  Eichmond) 
would  like  these  dishes  so  much,  and  he  is  young  and 
values  such  things.'  I  begged  him  to  let  me  send 
some  of  the  dinner  to  his  house  ;  but  he  declined,  say 
ing  :  i  The  papillottes  would  fall  flat  and  the  salad 
would  wilt ;  but  if  I  might  take  him  some  cake  and 
lollipops,  I  should  feel  very  happy.'  He  would  not 
allow  a  servant  to  carry  them,  but  took  them  in  a 
parcel  covered  with  a  napkin,  and  walked  home  beam 
ing  with  the  hope  of  conferring  pleasure  upon  his 
beloved  Jules." 

Loyal  to  friends  and  to  family,  steadfast  in  adher 
ence  to  political  principles  and  ideals,  he  was  yet  not 
a  patriot  of  the  highest  type.  The  citations  from  his 
letters  have  shown  that  he  kept  up  a  lively  interest  in 
the  political  conditions  at  the  South  j  indeed,  few 
political  prophets  have  ever  estimated  a  situation  with 
greater  accuracy  than  the  writer  of  these  words,  in  a 
letter  to  Mr.  T.  F.  Bayard,  November  11,  1865 :  "If 
the  Southern  states  are  allowed  without  interference 
to  regulate  the  transition  of  the  negro  from  his  former 
state  to  that  of  a  freednian,  they  will  eventually  work 
out  the  problem  successfully,  though  with  great  diffi 
culty  and  trouble,  and  I  doubt  not  that  the  recupera 
tive  energy  of  the  people  will  restore  a  large  share  of 
their  former  material  prosperity  much  sooner  than  is 
generally  believed ;  but  if  they  are  obstructed  and 
thwarted  by  the  fanatics,  and  if  external  influences  are 
brought  to  bear  on  the  negro  and  inflame  his  ignorant 
fancy  with  wild  dreams  of  social  and  political  equality, 
I  shudder  for  the  bitter  future  which  is  in  store  for  my 
unhappy  country. " 


42$  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

There  can  be  no  question  that  the  wisdom  and  the 
political  experience  of  Judah  P.  Benjamin  would  have 
counted  for  a  host  in  helping  the  South  to  solve  the 
problems  with  which  his  sagacity  foresaw  that  she  would 
be  burdened.  He  had  not,  as  I  have  tried  to  make 
clear,  led  his  section  into  the  war ;  but  during  the 
fatal  years  of  that  war  no  one  man  had  had  a  greater 
share  in  directing  the  destinies  of  the  South,  save  the 
President  alone.  That  President,  saddled  with  the 
odium  of  drastic  policies  rendered  necessary  by  the 
war,  and  held  responsible  for  disasters  which  neither 
he  nor  any  other  man  could,  in  all  human  probability, 
have  averted,  was  captured  by  the  foes  of  the  Con 
federacy  and  imprisoned  and  menaced  with  death  :  he 
emerged  the  South' s  martyr.  Because  he  abode  with 
his  people  and  had  suffered  in  their  name,  his  enemies 
were  silenced,  his  shortcomings  and  offenses  were  for 
given  and  forgotten.  Had  Mr.  Benjamin  remained, 
too,  though  there  was  the  probability  of  imprisonment 
and  the  menace  of  death,  was  there  not  also  the  cer 
tainty  of  such  gratitude  to  him  from  the  impulsive 
people  whom  he  knew  so  well,  had  served  so  long? 
The  perfect  patriot  is  so  much  of  the  soil  that  he  can 
not  survive  transplantation.  Of  such,  to  note  only  two 
examples  from  among  the  Confederates,  was  Alexander 
H.  Stephens  of  the  politicians,  and  General  Lee  of  the 
soldiers,  with  a  host  of  others  who  followed  the  ex 
ample  of  good  citizenship  set  by  them.  But  of  that 
lofty,  Puritanic  type  of  patriotism  Mr.  Benjamin  could 
not  boast.  Thus  remains  a  flaw  in  his  character  which 
I  would  not  seek  to  conceal,  whatever  excuses  I  may 
find  to  urge. 


CHAKACTEK  AND  ACHIEVEMENT       429 

Perhaps  we  shall  not  altogether  do  injustice  to  his 
point  of  view  if  we  suggest  that  it  was,  so  to  speak,  the 
outcome  of  professional  training.  He  was  a  born 
lawyer,  and  the  excursion  into  politics  was  merely  an 
episode.  Having,  as  it  were,  taken  a  brief  for  the 
South,  he  earnestly  and  zealously  fought  for  his  client 
as  long  as  his  abilities  could  avail.  When  the  cause 
was  lost,  after  he  had  done  all  that  in  him  lay  to  win 
it,  he  accepted  the  decision  as  absolving  him  from 
further  useless  effort.  Though  he  felt  for  the  South, 
he  thought  that  there  rested  no  obligation  upon  him  to 
share  her  adversities.  Material  and  other  interests, 
too,  impelled  him  to  seek  a  new  home.  His  fortunes 
were  ruined  ;  if  imprisoned,  or  even  if  not  imprisoned, 
he  could  not  hope  to  repair  them  speedily  in  a  country 
in  the  condition  of  the  South  after  the  war.  And  he 
had  many  dear  ones  dependent  wholly  or  in  great  part 
upon  him  for  support.  His  wife  and  daughter  lived 
in  France  and  would  not  live  elsewhere.  If  he  re 
mained,  there  was  the  certainty  of  long  continued 
separation  from  them,  and  of  inability  on  his  part  to 
supply  their  needs. 

The  exercise  of  heroism  is  far  easier,  and  far  pleas- 
anter  to  contemplate,  from  a  safe  distance  than  in 
medias  res.  For  his  own  fame,  doubtless,  heroism 
would  have  been  the  best  course,  nor  do  I  by  any 
means  imagine  that  he  did  not  understand  this.  But 
the  predominant  trait  in  the  man,  as  I  have  sought  to 
show,  was  devotion  to  his  family.  "Not  for  himself, 
for  he  cared  little  for  money,  but  for  those  he  loved, ' J 
writes  one  who  knew  him  intimately  in  England,  was 
he  determined  to  make  another  fortune.  And  if  we 


430  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

consider  these  things,  endeavoring  to  give  them  bear 
ing  as  if  upon  our  very  selves,  we  shall  not,  perhaps, 
judge  him  hastily  and  harshly. 

The  fact  that  Mr.  Benjamin's  wife  and  only  child 
lived  in  France  for  years  before  he  went  to  England, 
and  that  they  continued  to  live  there  while  he  was  just 
across  the  Channel,  cannot  fail  to  excite  comment. 
The  responsibility  for  this  state  of  things  rests  not  at 
all  upon  him ;  for  no  husband  could  have  been  more 
affectionate,  more  attentive  to  the  whims  and  fancies 
of  his  wife,  or  been  a  more  lavish  provider.  Those 
family  letters  from  which  I  have  quoted  only  the  parts 
bearing  particularly  on  the  man,  are  filled  with  all 
sorts  of  affectionate  allusions  to  Mrs.  Benjamin  :  he  is 
anxious  not  to  disappoint  Natalie  and  Ninette,  who 
will  be  waiting  for  him  at  the  station  in  Paris  to-mor 
row  evening,  and  have  a  party  of  pleasure  on  hand ; 
he  is  sorry  that  he  has  to  go  off  alone  to  a  watering- 
place,  for  his  health,  since  Natalie  cannot  bear  the 
spa  and  is  waiting  for  him  in  the  Pyrenees ;  he  is 
worried  because  Natalie  must  be  left  so  much  alone 
with  poor  sick  Jules,  it  is  very  depressing  to  her 
spirits  ;  it  is  sad  that  she  must  be  so  much  parted  from 
Ninette,  for  she  frets  so  for  her ;  Natalie  and  Ninette 
"are  as  busy  as  bees  deciding  on  shades  of  color  for 
the  decorations,  patterns  of  paper  for  every  room"  (in 
the  house  at  41  Avenue  d'Jena),  and  "I  am  leaving 
my  study  and  library  on  the  ground  floor  unfurnished 
this  year,  as  it  will  not  be  ready  in  time  to  be  of  any 
service  to  me  till  next  vacation  "  ;  and  "the  two  to 
gether  are  as  busy  as  bees,  finishing  the  furnishing 
and  ornamentation  of  the  l  grand  salon  ?  and  threaten 
ing  to  give  several  soirees  during  the  winter  on  the 


CHAEACTEE  AND  ACHIEVEMENT       431 

pretext  that  they  want  to  establish  intimate  relations 
with  certain  grand  personages  who  can  aid  in  the 
more  rapid  promotion  of  the  Captain," — and  so  on,  and 
so  on,  the  sum  of  it  all  being  that  there  is  ample  and 
multiform  evidence  of  his  taking  the  most  active  and 
helpful  interest  in  anything  that  might  add  to  their 
comfort  or  contribute  to  their  pleasure.  On  the  other 
hand,  close  searching,  and  a  faith  that  one  might  call 
blind  rather  than  simply  charitable,  is  necessary  to 
discover  that  Mrs.  Benjamin  manifested  the  least  solici 
tude  about  his  comfort.  He  wrote  to  Mr.  Bayard l  that 
he  hoped  soon  to  have  attained  such  a  position  that  he 
might  move  his  family  to  London.  No  doubt  he  sin 
cerely  desired  to  do  so  5  almost  every  letter  home  has 
some  allusion  to  the  irksomeness  of  separation  from 
his  wife  and  daughter.  He  hesitates  even  about  per 
mitting  himself  to  hope  for  that  chance  to  visit  New 
Orleans,  since  he  owes  his  vacations  to  his  family  ; 
and  he  spent  with  them  every  spare  moment  of  time. 
But  Mrs.  Benjamin,  self-indulgent  and  indulged  by 
him,  could  be  happy  nowhere  except  in  Paris.  By  a 
strange  perversion  of  truth,  the  English  are  called 
" insular";  the  greatest  nomads,  the  most  cosmo 
politan  nation,  perhaps,  that  the  world  has  known, 
mind  you,  are  held  up  as  horrible  examples  of  Philis 
tine  insularity,  to  combine  terms  that  may  convey  my 
meaning.  The  truly  insular,  surrounded  by  a  veritable 
Chinese  wall  of  self-satisfaction,  are  the  French ;  the 
homage  of  the  barbarians  to  their  dazzling  Grand 
Monarch  and  other  like  astonishing  phenomena  has 
encouraged  in  them  what  one  may  call  the  Narcissus 
habit.  Mrs.  Benjamin  was  a  typical  Frenchwoman, 

'Sept.  11,  1869. 


432  JDDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

in  tastes,  and  in  point  of  view.  She  did  not,  prob 
ably,  understand  at  all  that  she  was  playing  a  selfish 
part  j  but  economy  was  i  i  fatiguing, ' '  and  she  could 
no  more  consent  to  live  in  the  wilds  of  barbarous 
London  (almost  within  hail,  too,  of  the  Champs  Elysees) 
than  in  the  seclusion  of  "  Bellechasse." 

She  was  not  without  kindly  feelings  toward  his 
family  in  New  Orleans,  to  whom  she  sent  messages 
and  presents.  But  all  of  her  real  affection  was  centred 
in  her  daughter,  to  such  a  point,  indeed,  that  she  was 
somewhat  jealous  of  Captain  de  Bousignac,  and  utterly 
miserable  when  he  took  his  wife  away  with  him.  The 
daughter,  too,  was  incapable  of  reciprocating  the  wealth 
of  affection  displayed  by  her  father  ;  she  was  in  temper 
ament  more  like  her  mother  than  like  him.  Both  sur 
vived  him  a  number  of  years,  the  mother  dying  in  1891 ; 
the  daughter,  without  living  children,  in  1898.  About 
one  thing  only  did  Mrs.  Benjamin,  good  Catholic  that 
she  was,  seem  solicitous — that  her  husband  should  be 
deemed  safe  within  the  fold  of  the  Church. 

Was  Mr.  Benjamin  a  convert  to  Catholicism?  On 
his  deathbed  Catholic  rites  were  performed  over  him, 
and  the  services  of  that  Church  consecrated  his  fu 
neral.  Surely,  they  could  do  him  no  harm  ;  he  was 
probably,  however,  as  thoroughly  unconscious  at  the 
time  of  the  first  rites  as  at  the  time  of  the  last,  though 
he  would  very  likely,  also,  have  consented  smilingly  to 
anything  that  could  give  comfort  to  his  wife  and 
daughter.  Surely,  too,  for  one  who  had  led  an  up 
right  and  kindly  life,  with  loving  sympathy  and  charity 
and  gentleness  to  those  who  passed  his  way,  — Jew  and 
Gentile  alike,  in  this  day,  will  concede  that  there 
could  be  some  hope  of  the  mercy  of  God,  with  or  with- 


CHAEACTEE  AND  ACHIEVEMENT       433 

out  forms  and  ceremonies.  It  is  incumbent  upon  us, 
however,  to  glance  again  at  the  question  of  Mr.  Ben 
jamin's  religion,  since  it  is  beyond  doubt  that  the  fact 
of  his  being  a  Jew  by  birth  has  quickened  interest  and 
curiosity  about  him.  After  a  careful  examination  of 
such  data  as  could  be  discovered,  I  see  no  reason  to 
alter  the  opinion  expressed  in  a  preceding  chapter,1 
nor  have  I  much  of  consequence  to  add  to  what  is  said 
there.  A  more  detailed  investigation  than  I  can  give 
is  that  by  Mr.  Max  J.  Kohler,  in  his  admirable  mono 
graph,2  with  whose  conclusions  I  agree.  Mr.  Ben 
jamin  early  ceased  to  conform  to  the  observances  of 
the  faith  to  which  he  was  born ;  but  he  never  entirely 
lost  either  his  belief  in  or  his  memory  of  the  tenets  of 
that  faith  ;  he  neither  obtruded  nor  sought  to  conceal 
his  Jewish  birth,  of  which,  indeed,  he  was  proud.  He 
rarely  attended  any  religious  services,  but  he  would, 
on  occasion,  hear  good  Presbyterian  doctrine  from 
Dr.  Hoge,  or  be  edified  on  the  proper  relation  subsist 
ing  between  Church  and  State  in  Westminster.  I  have 
it  on  the  best  authority  (if,  indeed,  any  other  evidence 
than  the  fact  of  Benjamin's  own  intelligence  were 
needed),  from  one  very  intimate  with  him,  that  he 
was  always  a  firm  believer  in  immortality  and  in  a 
personal  God  ;  the  authority  I  consider  good  especially 
since  the  person  is  a  non-believer,  and  distinctly  re 
calls  long  and  always  good-humored  (that's  a  won 
der,  in  theology)  controversies  with  him.  In  conclud 
ing  this  subject  I  shall  refer  to  an  anecdote  that  is 
related,  in  slightly  varying  forms,  by  several  people. 

1  Chapter  II,  p.  46. 

2  Publications  Am.  Jewish  Hist.  Soc.,  No.  12;  of.  Jewish  Ency 
clopedia. 


434  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

Since  it  is  told  about  both  Disraeli  and  Benjamin,  I 
doubt  its  authenticity  as  regards  either  of  these  great 
Jews  ;  but  since  it  is  a  fine  bit  of  the  retort  that  fulmi 
nates  and  blasts,  I  give  it.  Being  contemptuously  re 
ferred  to  by  an  opponent  in  debate  (some  place  the 
scene  in  the  Senate,  some  on  the  hustings  in  Louisiana) 
as  "that  Jew  from  Louisiana,"  Benjamin  retorted: 
"It  is  true  that  I  am  a  Jew,  and  when  my  ancestors 
were  receiving  their  Ten  Commandments  from  the  im 
mediate  hand  of  Deity,  amidst  the  thunderings  and 
lightnings  of  Mt.  Sinai,  the  ancestors  of  the  distin 
guished  gentleman  who  is  opposed  to  me  were  herd 
ing  swine  in  the  forests  of  Scandinavia."  l 

It  is  universally  stated  by  those  who  remember  Mr. 
Benjamin,  that  he  was  a  brilliant  and  witty  conversa 
tionalist,  with  a  fund  of  rich  and  varied  information,  a 
marvelous  facility  in  quotation,  and  withal  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  poetry  at  his  tongue's  end,  a  stock 
of  anecdotes,  not  too  freely  used,  and  a  mastery  of  rep 
artee.  Where  so  many  see  the  same  thing,  we  must  give 
them  credence  j  and  yet  the  examples  of  Mr.  Benjamin's 
wit  are  few ;  perhaps  this  is  because  there  was  no  Boswell 
or  Lady  Holland  to  record  his  witticisms.  Of  courte 
ous,  gallantly  phrased  repartee  Mrs.  Davis  gives  a  good 
example.  She  had  disagreed  with  him  on  some  trivial 
point  and  declined  to  argue  about  it:  "  I  playfully 
said,  'If  I  let  you  set  one  stone,  you  will  build  a 
cathedral. '  He  laughed  and  answered,  i  If  it  should 
prove  to  be  the  shrine  of  truth,  you  will  worship  there 
with  me,  I  am  sure.'  "  Of  quicker  flash  is  his  answer 
to  Gambetta,  whom  he  met  at  dinner  in  Paris,  and  who 
said,  with  what  a  theatrical  toss  of  his  mane  we  can  well 

1  Cf.  Saturday  Evening  Post,  Oct.  3,  1903,  and  Kohler,  p.  83. 


CHARACTER  AND  ACHIEVEMENT       435 

figure  to  ourselves:  " Messieurs  les  journalistes  an 
glais  sont  les  rois  de  la  terre" — alluding  especially  to 
the  power  of  the  Times.  Benjamin  replied  :  "Par- 
faitement,  et  ils  ne  sont  janiais  detrones." 

But  of  humor  there  is  an  abundance  in  his  letters  ; 
humor  of  a  tender  and  playful  sort  that  reached  the 
heart  of  those  to  whom  it  was  addressed,  and  that  will 
hardly  bear  transplanting  from  the  home  garden. 
They  refer  very  frequently  to  the  children  of  whom  he 
was  specially  fond,  and  who  returned  the  affection. 
Mrs.  Bradford  says  that  in  1872  she  found  him  one  day, 
when  she  was  a  little  late  for  dinner,  lolling  on  the 
lounge  and  reading,  with  as  much  zest  as  her  boy, 
whose  playfellow  he  was,  the  Arabian  Nights.  He 
longed  for  a  grandchild,  but  was  always  disappointed, 
for  none  of  Mme.  de  Bousignac's  children  lived  be 
yond  a  few  hours  after  birth.  On  one  occasion,  when 
his  hopes  were  high,  he  wrote  home  :  u  We  have  de 
cided  that  it  is  to  be  a  boy  and  that  he  is  to  become  a 
Marshal  of  France,  so  that  anxiety  is  off  my  mind." 
"Those  dear  little  folks,"  he  writes  to  Mrs.  Levy 
when  mentioning  her  young  grandson,  as  at  least  a  pal 
liative  for  rheumatism,  "  twine  themselves  so  'round 
the  heart  that  everything  else  seems  trifling  and  unim 
portant  in  comparison."  "I  have  been  away  for  so 
long,  alas  ! "  he  writes  to  Mrs.  Kruttschnitt,  "that  I 
can't  figure  to  myself,  as  the  French  say,  how  [your 
children]  look  as  grown  up,  and  then  your  sweet  little 
things  that  I  don't  know  at  all  !  Send  me  a  list  of 
them !  I  ain't  joking,  I  want  a  list  with  ages.  Of 
course  I  know  their  names  ;  but  I  want  to  realize  if  I 
can  their  ages."  "  Give  Johnny  [his  great-nephew]  a 

1  Letter  from  Sir  Campbell  Clarke,  Lawley  MS. 


436  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

kiss  for  his  lock  of  hair  for  Uncle  Ben,  and  as  I  can't 
send  him  a  lock  of  mine,  having  none  to  spare,  I  send 
him  the  postage  stamps  to  buy  candy.  Tell  him  to 
give  a  piece  to  J.  P."  l 

The  letters  are  full  of  indignant  comments  on  the 
stubbornness  of  that  "  dear  old  lady,"  Mrs.  Levy,  who 
will  not  subside  into  the  indolence  becoming  to  one  of 
her  years,  but  insists  on  gardening  in  spite  of  cold  and 
wet,  and  contracts  rheumatism.  If  she  will  raise  toma 
toes,  it's  a  pity  she  could  not  send  them  here  :  "  I  have 
to  pay  eight  cents  apiece  for  them."  But  shortly,  to 
matoes  have  gone  down  ;  "they  only  cost  seven  cents 
now."  To  Leah,  also,  the  loving  playful  references 
are  frequent:  "Sis  writes  me  .  .  .  that  dear 
Leah's  health  is  not  as  good  as  she  could  wish.  This 
will  never  do  !  How  can  we  get  on  for  '  sauce '  if  she 
fails  us  ?  It  is  my  opinion  that  she  requires  a  vast  deal 
of  gaiety  and  society  to  get  rid  of  her  superabundance 
of  that  article,  and  that  if  she  does  not  avail  herself  of 
every  occasion,  it  will  strike  inward  like  the  measles, 
and  prove  fatal." 

When  his  wife  and  daughter  send  a  goodly  list  of 
presents  to  various  members  of  the  family,  he  says  : 
' '  It  has  been  a  labor  of  love  for  them,  and  my  Lord 
ship  was  not  permitted  to  say  a  word  on  the  subject, 
except  to  select  the  box  for  Sis  and  the  buttons  for 
Lionel ;  and  I  venture  to  say  that  my  superior  taste 
will  be  self-evident,  when  compared  with  that  of  the 
1  inferior  sex. ' '  >  When  he  himself,  after  a  very  success 
ful  year,  wrote  to  wish  them  all  a  Happy  New  Year  (De 
cember  14,  1877),  and  enclosed  a  draft  for  five  hundred 
dollars,  specifying  how  the  sum  was  to  be  distributed 
he  stipulated :  "I  make  one  general  condition — 


CHAEACTEE  AND  ACHIEVEMENT       437 

Ernest  is  to  pay  for  a  bottle  of  champagne  to  drink  the 
health  of  your  loving  brother  on  New  Year's  Day  ;  so 
his  present  is  to  pay  a  couple  of  dollars  out  of  his  own 
pocket.  And  Kitt  is  to  give  a  i  grande  seance  scien- 
tifique  et  amusante '  exhibiting  the  glories  of  micro 
scopic  research." 

The  same  humorous  vein  crops  out  in  several  of  the 
few  letters  to  friends  that  have  been  preserved.  "  My 
dear  Mrs.  Bayard,"  he  writes,1  "it  seems  that  Mrs. 
Benjamin  took  it  into  her  head  to-day  to  have  made  for 
you  a  cake  of  the  kind  she  thought  you  liked,  and  I 
found  her  determined  when  I  came  home,  that  /should 
write  you  a  line  in  her  place,  as  she  was  unwilling  to 
ventilate  her  English  in  writing.  I  obey  like  a  good 

husband So  much  for  her.     For  myself,  I  beg  to 

place  myself  on  the  very  top  of  the  list  of  your  warmest 
friends,  and  at  the  feet  of  your  charming  daughters. 
Please  don't  let  Bayard  have  any  of  the  cake."  And 
in  a  pleasant,  chatty  letter  to  Mrs.  Bradford,8  with 
whom  he  had  frequent  arguments  as  to  the  genius  of 
the  Laureate,  after  quoting  a  verse  which  he  expects 
her  ^to  scorn,  he  continues  :  l '  This  puts  me  in  mind 
of  the  indignation  with  which  your  soul  must  be  in 
flamed  by  the  Times'  criticism  on  Tennyson's  new 
poem  which  I  propose  to  get  by  heart  and  use  as  a 
weapon  of  offense  against  you  whenever  I  am  too  much 
provoked.  I  have  not  yet  read  it,  however,  and  antic 
ipate  with  delight  selecting  c  pretty '  passages  for  your 
special  delectation.  Honest  confession  is,  however, 
good  for  the  soul,  and  I  will  avow  at  the  expense  of  your 

1  To  Mrs.  T.  F.  Bayard,  not  dated,  but  probably  during  the  sum 
mer  of  1881. 
*  Oct.  26, 1872. 


438  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

triumph  that  I  do  wish  Tennyson  would  let  King  Ar 
thur  alone  for  the  present  and  take  up  some  other  sub 
ject  for  his  Lady  Muse. 

1  i  The  English  people  are  as  raw  and  fretful  as  their 
worst  enemies  could  wish  over  the  San  Juan  award. 
In  private  conversation  I  observe  the  very  great  sore 
ness  which  is  felt,  and  I  begin  to  see  that  I  was  not 
wrong  in  the  forecast,  that  arbitration  is  not  like 
spermaceti,  the  sovereign  ointment  for  an  inward 
bruise.  .  .  . 

1  i  I  give  up  the  English  climate — wreak  your  venge 
ance  on  it,  and  enjoy  your  triumph.  It  has  rained 
incessantly  for  a  fortnight,  yet  an  Englishman  has  had 
the  assurance  to  ask  me  to  spend  the  day  with  him  in 
the  country  to-morrow  (Sunday),  because  the  t  country 
looks  beautiful  in  its  autumn  dress,  and  we  will  have  a 
delightful  walk.'  Of  course  I  wrote  him  an  insulting 
reply." 

Surely,  this  was  no  dark  conspirator  hatching  sin 
ister  plots,  but  a  gentle,  generous,  and  lovable  man, 
from  whose  exquisite  private  life  I  have  drawn  the 
veil,  I  trust,  with  reverent  hand.  He  had  great 
wealth,  made  honestly  by  his  own  labor,  and  expended 
most  freely  for  the  pleasure  of  those  he  loved.  From 
the  bitter  accusations  uttered  in  the  heat  of  politics  I 
have  not  sought  to  shield  his  memory  by  concealing 
them  ;  rather  have  I  given  them  place  in  these  pages, 
confident  that  the  record  of  good  deeds,  of  kindly 
thoughts,  of  great  and  honorable  preferment  that  could 
be  placed  beside  them,  would  be  answer  sufficient. 
And  in  judging  the  character  of  Judah  P.  Benjamin, 
after  a  career  brilliantly  successful  in  so  many  fields,  a 
career  that  began  as  a  penniless  private  tutor,  rose  to 


CHAEACTEE  AND  ACHIEVEMENT       439 

a  climax  that  would  have  ruined  a  weaker  man  in  the 
fearful  ordeals  of  the  Civil  War,  and  culminated  in 

"That  which  should  accompany  old  age, 
As  honor,  love,  obedience,  troops  of  friends," 

I  shall  let  his  English  admirers  give  their  judgment, 
after  they  had  met  him  in  their  courts  for  sixteen 
years.     "  You  know  how  Mr.  Benjamin  came  among 
us,"  said  Sir  Henry  James  at  the  farewell  dinner,  l 

II  and  how  we  received  him.    Ejectum  littore  egentem  ac- 
cepimus;  but  no  regret,  no  self-reproach  has  ever  come 
to  us  for  having  given  him  place  within  our  kingdom. 
He  knocked  at  our  doors  and  they  were  widely  opened 
to  him.     We  found  place  for  him  in  our  foremost 
rank  ;  we  grudged  him  not  the  leadership  he  so  easily 
gained — we  were  proud  of  his  success,  for  we  knew 
the  strength  of  the  stranger  among  us,  and  the  bar  is 
ever  generous  even  in  its  rivalry  toward  success  that  is 
based  on  merit.     And  the  merit  must  have  been  there, 
for  who  is  the  man  save  this  one  of  whom  it  can  be 
said  that  he  held  conspicuous  leadership  at  the  bar  of 
two  countries  ?    To  him  this  change  of  citizenship  and 
transition  in  his  profession  seemed  easy  enough.     From 
the  first  days  of  his  coming  he  was  one  of  us.     We  had 
been  taught  by  the  same  teachers,  Coke  and  Black  - 
stone.     .     .     .     But  he  was  one  of  us  not  only  in  this 
common  knowledge.     The  honor  of  the  English  bar 
was  as  much  cherished  and  represented  by  him  as  by 
any  man  who  has  ever  adorned  it,  and  we  all  feel  that 
if  our  profession  has  afforded  him  hospitality,  he  has 
repaid  it,  amply  repaid  it,  not  only  by  the  reputation 

1  London  Times,  July  2,  1883. 


440  JUDAH  P.  BENJAMIN 

which  his  learning  has  brought  to  us,  but  by  that 
which  is  more  important,  the  honor  his  conduct  has 
gained  for  us.  But  he  became  one  of  us  in  fuller 
spirit  yet  j  not  only  the  lawyer  but  the  man  was  of  us. 
Eivalry  with  him  seemed  to  create  rather  than  to  dis 
turb  friendship,  and  it  was  within  the  walls  of  our 
courts  that  Mr.  Benjamin  first  found  those  friends  who 
sit  around  him  to-night.  And  how  strange  and  quick 
must  have  been  his  power  to  make  them  !  Mr.  Ben 
jamin  sees  here  no  small  gathering  of  men  who  have 
come  in  friendship  to  his  side.  To  other  men  it  may 
be  given  also  to  have  many  friendships,  but  they  take 
a  lifetime  to  form.  They  commence  in  childhood 
and  strengthen  and  increase  as  life  goes  on.  The 
years  are  few  since  Mr.  Benjamin  was  a  stranger  to  us 
all,  and  in  those  few  years  he  has  accomplished  more 
than  most  men  can  ever  hope  in  a  lifetime  to  achieve.7' 


APPENDIX 

SINCE  professional  men  may  take  an  interest  in  the 
matter,  the  appended  extract  from  Mr.  Benjamin's 
fee-book  (Laidey  MS)  gives  the  figures  for  his  earnings 
at  the  English  bar. 

£  s  d 

1867 495  12      3 

1868 703  0      8 

1869 1,074  7      2 

1870 1,480  3      0 

1871 2,100  17      0 

1872 5,623  7      4 

1873 8,934  3  11 

1874 9,861  1      4 

1875 11,316  0      0 

1876 13,812  9      4 

1877 14,741  3      7 

1878 15,742  6      6 

1879 14,632  5      2 

1880 15,972  4  10 

1881 14,632  3      2 

1882 „ 12,789  5      3 


Total,       143,900    10      6 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

IN  the  subjoined  list  of  books,  periodicals,  and  other 
sources,  no  attempt  has  been  made  to  include  those 
having  but  slight  or  inconsiderable  notices  of  Mr.  Ben 
jamin.  Those  found  most  useful  to  the  writer, 
whether  for  direct  evidence  or  as  supplying  the  neces 
sary  historic  background,  are  included.  The  refer 
ences  in  the  footnotes  are  usually  to  the  name  of  the 
author,  or  to  a  condensed  title ;  where  authorities  are 
frequently  referred  to,  the  bibliography  shows  the  title 
used  for  reference  in  the  footnotes.  Entries  are  made 
in  alphabetical  order,  and  for  convenience  the  authori 
ties  are  classified  under  five  heads,  as  I,  Books, 
Pamphlets,  and  Cyclopaedias ;  II,  Newspapers ;  III, 
Periodicals ;  IV,  Public  Documents  and  Official  Pub 
lications  ;  Y,  Private  Sources. 

I.     BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  AND  CYCLOPEDIAS 
A  GENERATION  OF  JUDGES.     By  their  Reporter,  1886. 
ALFRIEND,  FRANK  H.     Life  of  Jefferson  Davis,  1868. 
AMERICAN  ANNUAL  ENCYCLOPAEDIA  (Appleton's),  1861,  1884. 
BANCROFT,  FREDERICK.     Life  of  William  H.  Seward,  1900. 
BARNES,  T.  W.     Memoir  of  Thurlow  Weed,  1884. 
BATTLES  AND  LEADERS  OF  THE  CIVIL  WAR,  1884-1887. 

BERNARD,  MONTAGUE.     Historical  Account  of  the  Neutrality  of 
Great  Britain  during  the  American  Civil  War,  1870. 

BIGELOW,  JOHN.     France  and  the  Confederate  Navy — 1862-1868. 
An  International  Episode,  1888. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  443 

ELAINE,  JAMES  G.  Twenty  Years  of  Congress  :  From  Lincoln  to 
Garfield,  1884. 

BREWER,  DAVID  J.     The  World's  Best  Orations,  1899. 

BULLOCH,  J.  D.  Secret  Service  of  the  Confederate  States  in 
Europe,  1884. 

CALLAHAN,  J.  M.  The  Diplomatic  History  of  the  Southern  Con 
federacy,  1901. 

COFFIN,  CHARLES  C.     Marching  to  Victory,  1863,  1889. 

CORTHELL,  E.  L.  The  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Ship-Railway,  1886. 
Pamphlet. 

Cox,  S.  S.     Three  Decades  of  Federal  Legislation,  1885. 

CURRY,  J.  L.  M.  Civil  History  of  the  Government  of  the  Con 
federate  States,  1901. 

CYCLOPAEDIA  OF  AMERICAN  BIOGRAPHY.  Appleton's.  Edited 
by  James  Grant  Wilson  and  John  Fiske,  1891. 

DAVIS,  JEFFERSON.  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Confederate  Govern 
ment,  1881. 

DAVIS,  (MRS.)  VARINA  A.  H.  Jefferson  Davis— Ex-President  of 
the  Confederate  States  of  America.  A  memoir  by  his 
wife,  1890. 

DE  LEON,  J.  C.     Four  Years  in  Rebel  Capitals,  1892. 

DIRECTORIES.  Directories  of  the  cities  of  New  Orleans  and  Lafay 
ette,  etc.,  for  the  years:  1835,  1838,  1841,  1842,  1844, 
1846,  1850.  1851,  1853-1856,  1858-1861. 

EADS,  JAMES  B.  The  Tehuantepec  Ship-Railway,  1883.  Pam 
phlet. 

HAMILTON,  J.  A.  H.  Article,  "Benjamin,  Judah  P.,"  Diction 
ary  of  National  Biography,  1888. 

HEADLEY,  J.  N.,  Confederate  Operations  in  Canada  and  New 
York,  1806. 

HOLST,  HERMANN  E.  VON.  Constitutional  and  Political  History 
of  the  United  States.  Translated  by  John  J.  Lalor,  1889- 
1892. 

HURD,  JOHN  C.  The  Law  of  Freedom  and  Bondage  in  the  United 
States,  1858-1862. 

JOHNSTON,  ALEXANDER.  American  Orations  :  Studies  in  Ameri 
can  Political  History,  1897. 

JOHNSTON,  R.  M.,  AND  BROWNE,  WILLIAM  H.  Life  of  Alexan 
der  H.  Stephens,  1884. 


444  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

JOHNSTON,  WILLIAM  PKESTON.  The  Life  of  General  Albert  Sid 
ney  Johnston,  1880. 

JONES,  J.  B.  A  Rebel  War  Clerk's  Diary  at  the  Confederate  States 
Capitol,  1866. 

KEYES,  E.  D.  Fifty  Years'  Observation  of  Men  and  Events,  Civil 
and  Military,  1884. 

KOHLEE,  MAX  J.  Judah  P.  Benjamin:  Statesman  and  Jurist. 
Publications  of  the  American  Jewish  Historical  Society, 
No.  12.  Pamphlet,  1905. 

Article,  "Benjamin,  Judah  P.,"  Jewish  Encyclopaedia. 

LEE,  GUY  CAELETON.  The  World's  Best  Orators,  1900.  (Vol. 
X,  pp.  99-110.) 

LEE,  CAPTAIN  ROBEET  E.     Recollections  and  Letters  of  General 
Robert  E.  Lee,  1904. 

LEOVY,  H.  J.  The  Ante-Bellum  Bench  and  Bar.  Transactions  of 
the  Louisiana  Bar  Association,  1900.  Pamphlet. 

MCPHEBSON,  EDWAED.  Political  History  of  the  United  States 
during  the  Great  Rebellion,  1865. 

MASON,  VIEGINIA.  The  Public  Life  and  Diplomatic  Correspond 
ence  of  James  M.  Mason,  1904. 

MOESE,  JOHN  T.,  JE.  Abraham  Lincoln.  American  Statesmen 
Series,  1893. 

NICOLAY  AND  HAY.     Abraham  Lincoln  :  a  History,  1890. 
POLLAED,  E.  A.     The  Lost  Cause,  1866. 

Life  of  Jefferson  Davis.     With  a  Secret  History  of  the 

Southern  Confederacy,  1869. 

POOEE,  BENJAMIN  PEELEY.  Reminiscences  of  Sixty  Years  in  the 
National  Metropolis,  1886. 

RHODES,  JAMES  FOED.  A  History  of  the  United  States  from  the 
Compromise  of  1850,  1904. 

RICHAEDSON,  JAMES  D.  A  Compilation  of  the  Messages  and 
Papers  of  the  Confederacy,  including  the  Diplomatic  Cor 
respondence,  1861-1865.  Published  by  permission  of 
Congress  by  James  D.  Richardson,  1905. 

RUSSELL,  WILLIAM  H.     My  Diary  North  and  South,  1863. 

SABINE,  JOSEPH.  A  Dictionary  of  Books  relating  to  America. 
(Vol.  II,  pp.  64,  66.) 

SCHOULEE,  JAMES.  A  History  of  the  United  States  of  America 
under  the  Constitution,  1899. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  445 

SCHWAB,  J.  C.  The  Confederate  States  of  America.  Financial 
and  Industrial  History  of  the  South  during  the  Civil  War, 
1901. 

SCOTT,  H.  W.     Distinguished  American  Lawyers,  1897. 

SEWAED,  FREDERICK  W.  Seward  at  Washington,  1846-1872, 
1891. 

STEPHENS,  A.  H.     The  War  Between  the  States,  1868-1870. 

STEVENS,  HENRY.  The  Tehuantepec  Railway  :  Its  Location,  Fea 
tures,  and  Advantages  under  the  La  Sere  Grant  of  1869, 
1869.  Pamphlet. 

TEHUANTEPEC,  ISTHMUS  OF.  Memorial  setting  forth  the  rights 
and  just  reasons  which  the  government  of  the  United 
States  of  Mexico  has  for  not  recognizing  the  validity  of  the 
privilege  for  opening  communication  by  the  Isthmus  of 
Tehuantepec.  Published  by  the  Minister  of  Relations, 
1852.  Pamphlet. 

TOMPKINS,  H.  C.  Judah  P.  Benjamin.  Alabama  State  Bar  As 
sociation  Reports,  1896.  Pamphlet. 

TRASTOUR,  P.  Summary  Explanation  respecting  the  Tehuantepec 
Canal,  1856.  Pamphlet. 

WHITAKER,  JOHN.  Sketches  of  Life  and  Character  in  Louisiana, 
the  portraits  selected  principally  from  the  Bench  and  Bar, 

1847.  .    . 

WILLIAMS,  J.  The  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec.  Results  of  a  Sur 
vey  under]  the'direction  of  Major  J.  G.  Barnard  for  a  rail 
road  to  connect  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Oceans,  1852. 

WISE,  B.  H.     Life  of  Henry  A.  Wise  of  Virginia,  1899. 

II    NEWSPAPERS 

The  most  valuable  source  for  materials  upon  Mr.  Benjamin's  life 
prior  to  the  Civil  War  is  the  collection  of  newspapers  on  file  at  the 
City  Hall  in  New  Orleans.  At  one  period  a  particular  journal  may 
be  of  great  use,  and  then  become  utterly  valueless  ;  hence  it  is  im 
possible  within  brief  limits  to  indicate  the  periods  covered  by  the 
journals  named  below,  But  the  following  list  includes  those  that 
have  been  consulted  for  various  periods;  specific  references  are 
given  in  the  footnotes  in  all  cases  of  importance  : 

The  New  Orleans  Argus ;  the  New  Orleans  Bee;  the  New  Orleans 
Courier;  the  New  Orleans  Crescent;  the  New  Orleans  Delta; 
the  New  Orleans  True  Delta ;  the  New  Orleans  Jefferaonian  ;  the 
New  Orleans  Picayune ;  the  New  Orleans  Times  /  the  New  Orleans 


446  BIBLIOGEAPHY 

Tropic;    the    London    Daily    Telegraph,    February  10,  1883;    the 
London  Times,  July  2,  1883,  and  May  9,  1884. 

The  files  of  the  New  York  Times  and  Tribune,  1861-1865,  are  of 
course  very  useful,  as  publishing  especially  intercepted  Confederate 
correspondence  ;  but  specific  references  to  the  particular  copies  of 
these  and  other  newspapers  are  given  in  the  footnotes. 

III.    PERIODICALS 

Albany  Law  Journal.  Vol.  27,  p.  182  ;  Vol.  28,  pp.  41,  61,  82  : 
Vol.  29,  pp.  382,  422  ;  Vol.  30,  p.  62. 

ALDIS,  O.  F.  Article,  "Louis  Napoleon  and  the  Southern  Con 
federacy."  North  American  Review,  Vol.  129,  pp.  342, 
344. 

The  Athenaeum.     1888,  Vol.  I,  p.  599. 

BIGELOW,  JOHN.  Article,  •'  The  Confederate  Diplomatists, "  Cen 
tury  Magazine,  Vol.  20,  p.  413. 

CALLAHAN,  J.  M.  Article,  "The  Confederate  Diplomatic  Ar 
chives."  The  Pickett  Papers.  South  Atlantic  Quarterly, 
Vol.  2,  No.  1,  January,  1903. 

DAWES,  HENEY  L.  Article,  "Has  Oratory  Declined?"  The 
Forum,  Vol.  18,  p.  148.  October,  1894. 

DE  Bow,  J.  B.  DeBow's  Commercial  Review  of  the  Southern  and 
Western  States,  Vol.  I,  164,  167,  498;  II,  322-345,  442; 
V,  44-57,  357-364;  X,  94-96  ;  XII,  312;  XIII,  45,  et  seq., 
236,  et  seq.  ;  XIV,  1-23  ;  XXI,  209-212 ;  XL,  1-6. 

"  Diary  of  a  Public  Man."  North  American  Review,  Vol.  129,  pp. 
133,  134,  139,  263,  264,  271. 

Gulf  States  Historical  Magazine.     Vol.  II,  No.  1,  July,  1903. 

HARBISON,  BURTON  N.  Article,  "The  Capture  of  Jefferson 
Davis,"  Century  Magazine,  Vol.  27,  pp.  130-140,  Novem 
ber,  1883. 

Jewish  Chronicle.     May  9,  1884. 
Jewish  World.     May  16,  1884. 

KOHLER,  MAX  J.  Article,  "Jews  and  the  American  Anti-Slavery 
Movement,"  American  Jewish  Historical  Society  Publica 
tions,  Vol.  II,  No.  9,  p.  52. 

Law  Journal.  March  10,  February  17,  and  July  14,  1883  ;  May  17 
and  July  5,  1884.  (See  London  Times,  among  News 
papers.) 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  447 

Law  Times.  Vol.  75,  p.  188,  July  7,  1883  ;  Vol.  77,  p.  47,  May  17, 
1884.  (See  London  Times,  among  Newspapers.) 

LEBOWICH,  JOSEPH.  Article,  "Judah  P.Benjamin:  a  Bibliog 
raphy,"  The  Menorah  Monthly,  November,  1902;  pp. 
305-312. 

New  York  Public  Library  Bulletin.  Confederate  Attorney-General 
Kecords.  Vols.  I  and  II. 

POLLOCK,  CHARLES,  BARON  POLLOCK.  "Reminiscences  of  Judah 
Philip  Benjamin,"  article  in"  Fortnightly  Review,  Vol. 
69,  pp.  354-361,  March,  1898  ;  also  in  The  Green  Bag,  Vol. 
X,  pp.  396-401,  and  LittelVs  Living  Age,  Vol.  217. 

Records  of  the  American  Catholic  Historical  Society  of  Philadelphia, 
Sept.  1903. 

RUSSELL,  SIR  WILLIAM  H.  Article,  "Reminiscences  of  the  Civil 
War,"  North  American  Review,  March,  1898,  p.  373. 

Solicitor's  Journal,  May  10  and  July  7,  1884. 

Southern  Historical  Society  Papers.     Vols.  IV,  VII,  and  XIV. 

STERN,  DAVID.  Article,  "Judah  P.  Benjamin,"  North  Carolina 
University  Magazine,  January,  1902,  pp.  56-61. 

SUMNER,  J.  O.  Article,  "Materials  for  the  History  of  the  Gov 
ernment  of  the  Confederacy, ' '  American  Historical  Asso 
ciation  Papers,  Vol.  IV. 

SWALLOW,  W.  H.  Article,  "  Retreat  of  the  Conf ederate" Govern 
ment,"  Magazine  of  American  History,  June,  1886. 

VEST,  G.  G.  Article,  "  A  Senator  of  Two  Republics :  Judah  P. 
Benjamin,"  Philadelphia  Saturday  Evening  Post,  October 
3,  1903. 

IV.    PUBLIC  DOCUMENTS  AND  OFFICIAL  PUB 
LICATIONS 

References  to  the  law  reports — Louisiana  Annuals,  United  States 
Supreme  Court  Reports,  and  English  Reports — are  here  omitted, 
since  the  mere  record  of  cases  in  which  Benjamin  appeared  would  be 
necessarily  extended,  and  of  slight  interest  to  any  but  legal  students. 

Acts  and  Resolutions  of  the  Provisional  Congress  of  the  Confederate 
States  of  America. 

The  Congressional  Globe,  1853-1861. 

Journal  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Convention  of  the  State  of  Loui 
siana  begun  and  held  in  the  City  of  New  Orleans  on  the  14th  day 
of  January,  1845.  Published  by  Authority.  New  Orleans, 
1845.  (Less  full  than  Proceedings,  below.) 


448  BIBLIOGEAPHY 

Journal.     Louisiana  Constitutional  Convention  of  1852. 

Pickett  Papers.  Confederate  Diplomatic  and  Consular  Correspond 
ence,  now  preserved  in  the  Treasury  Department,  Washington, 
D.  C.  These  papers,  so  named  because  obtained  chiefly  from 
Colonel  John  T.  Pickett  (see  Callahan,  Chapter  I),  have  not  yet 
been  published  in  complete  form  ;  for  portions  of  important  dis 
patches  to  and  from  Benjamin,  see  references  to  Official  Records, 
Mason,  Richardson,  Bigelow,  and  Callahan. 

Proceedings  and  Debates  of  the  Convention  of  Louisiana  -which  as 
sembled  at  the  City  of  New  Orleans,  January  14,  1844  (should  be 
1845).  Eobert  J.  Ker,  reporter.  New  Orleans,  1845. 

Statutes  at  Large  of  the  Confederate  States  of  America. 

United  States  Senate  Reports.  44th  Congress,  1st  Session,  Vol.  I. 
(Report  on  Confiscated  Lands  of  J.  P.  Benjamin.) 

War  of  the  Rebellion.  A  Compilation  of  the  Official  Records  of  the 
Union  and  Confederate  Armies.  Washington,  1880.  Referred 
to  as  Official  Records. 

V.    PRIVATE  SOURCES 

1.  Collection  of  manuscript  materials  made  by  the  late  Mr. 
Francis  Lawley,  of  London,  with  a  view  to  his  writing  the  life 
of  Benjamin.     He  completed  no  more  than  the  bare  rough  draft  of 
opening  chapters,  with  an  outline  of  the  proposed  treatment.     But 
the  collection  includes  a  number  of  letters,  usually  of  slight  intrin 
sic  value,  from  Mr.  Benjamin,  numerous  very  valuable  special  con 
tributions  from  those  who  knew  Mr.  Benjamin  in  England,  (e.  g. 
Lord  James  of  Hereford  and  Mr.  Witt),  letters,  copies  of  news 
paper  clippings,  copies  of  his  fee-book,  contributions  of  great  inter 
est  from  such  persons  in  America  as  Mrs.  Davis,  Mr.  L.  Q.  Wash 
ington,  and  the  Rev.   Dr.   Hoge,  etc.,  and  from  some  of  the  con 
temporaries  of  Benjamin  at  school  and  college.     Particular  articles 
in   this  collection  are  referred  to  by  title,  with  reference  to  the 
Lawley  Manuscript  in  the  footnotes. 

2.  Family  Letters.     A  collection  of   letters  covering  the  years 
1864-1883  from  Mr.  Benjamin  to  members  of  his  family  in  New 
Orleans,  kindly  put  in  the  hands  of  the  writer  by  Mr.  E.  B.  Krutt- 
schnitt,  of  New  Orleans. 

3.  Bayard  Letters.     A  small  collection  of  very  interesting  and 
important  letters  from  Mr.  Benjamin  to  Messrs.   James  A.  and 
Thomas  F.  Bayard,  with  notes  upon  Mr.  Benjamin  made  by  the  lat 
ter,  all  carefully  copied  and  furnished  to  the  writer  by  Mrs.  W.  S. 
Ililles  (nee  Bayard),  of  Wilmington,  Del. 


BIBLIOGEAPHY  449 

3.  Miscellaneous  letters  and  notes  made  from  conversations  with 
Mrs.  Jefferson  Davis,  Mrs.  E.  A.  Bradford,  Judge  D.  M.  Shelby, 
Mrs.  Leah  Popham  (niece  of  Mr.  Benjamin),  Mr.  E.  B.  Krutt- 
schnitt  (his  nephew) ;  a'  few  letters  from  Benjamin  to  James  M. 
Mason,  in  possession  of  Miss  Mason. 


INDEX 


ABOLITIONISTS,  agitation  of 
irritating  and  menacing  to 
the  South,  85,  86,  109,  145, 
146,  156. 

Adams,  Charles  Francis,  Min 
ister  to  England,  279,  280, 
312,  322,  323. 

Aime,  Valcour,  53,  55,  59. 

Alabama,  Confederate  cruiser, 
278. 

American  Party,  see  Know 
Nothing. 

Andersonville,  treatment  of 
Federal  prisoners  at,  374, 
375. 

Antietam,  battle  of,  278. 

Aspland,  L.  M.,  419. 

BALL,  DYER,  29. 

Barlow,  8.  M.,  28. 

Barnard,  Major,  engineer  for 
the  Tehuantepec  Co.,  127  ; 
expelled  from  Mexico,  129. 

Bayard,  James  A.,  28,  173,  174, 
178,  366,  373. 

Bayard,  Thomas  F.,  28,  30, 173, 
174,  175  ;  recounts  Benja 
min's  quarrel  with  Davis, 
178,  374,  410,  427,  431. 

Bayard,  Mrs.  Thomas  F.,  437. 

Beauregard,  General  P.  G.  T., 
243,  273,  274. 

Belden,  R.  C.,  reminiscences  of 
Benjamin  as  a  schoolboy,  25. 

Bellechasse,  plantation,  36,  48, 
55,  56,  57,  58,  60,  62,  119. 

Benjamin,  Alexander,  367. 

Benjamin,  Harriet,  24,  25,  335, 
343,  367,  377,  389,  397. 


Benjamin,  Joseph,  24,  344,  367, 
372. 

Benjamin,  Judah  Philip,  par 
entage,  21,22;  birth,  23,  30  ; 
removal  to  the  United  States, 
23,  24;  boyhood  and  educa 
tion,  24-27;  brief  career  at 
Yale,  27-31  ;  removal  to  New 
Orleans,  29,  30,  32;  studies 
law,  29,  33 ;  admitted  to  the 
bar,  34;  marriage,  34,  35; 
religion,  35,  44,  46,  47  ;  rapid 
success  at  the  bar,  37-40; 
counsel  in  the  Creole  cases, 
41-43;  sketch  of,  by  a  con 
temporary,  43-45 ;  acquires 
an  interest  in  u  Bellechasse  " 
plantation,  48 ;  experiments 
in  sugar  culture,  51-57;  ar 
ticles  in  De  Bow's  Heview, 
52-55 ;  establishes  his  mother 
and  sisters  at  ' '  Bellechasse, ' ' 
57;  the  life  there,  58-61; 
financial  losses,  61 ;  active  in 
politics  as  a  Whig,  64  ;  elected 
to  the  Louisiana  legislature, 
66,  68;  accused  of  being  a 
Know  Nothing,  69,  71 ;  elected 
to  the  Louisiana  constitutional 
convention  of  1844,  74,  77 ; 
political  opinions,  and  serv 
ices  in  the  convention,  69-74, 
75-95;  views  on  slavery  and 
the  Abolition  agitation,  42, 
62,  85-90 ;  presidential  elector 
on  the  Whig  ticket,  1848,  95; 
elected  to  the  Louisiana  Sen 
ate,  98,  99;  elected  to  the 
United  States  Senate,  99-102; 


452 


INDEX 


partisanship,  102,  105,  112; 
elected  to  the  Louisiana  con 
stitutional  convention  of  1852, 
and  is  its  guiding  spirit,  104, 
105,  107  ;  his  course  shows  a 
change  in  political  views, 
106-112;  election  as  United 
States  Senator  contested,  113- 
117;  association  with  John 
Slidell,  118;  declines  a  seat 
in  the  Supreme  Court,  118 ; 
interest  in  the  Tehuantepec 
Co.,  119-133;  in  the  Jackson 
Railroad,  134-136 ;  Boston 
Club  banquet  in  his  honor, 
138 ;  council  in  the  McDonogh 
case,  139,140;  legal  partner 
ship  with  Micou,  Bradford 
and  Finney,  141, 142  ;  visits 
Ecuador  and  conducts  a  case 
there,  142,  143  ;  reported  pur 
chase  of  guano  island,  144; 
views  on  the  Know  Nothings, 
146  ;  on  slavery  and  the  Ab 
olitionists,  146-149,  156,  157  ; 
speech  in  the  Senate  on  the 
Kansas  Bill,  change  of  po 
litical  party,  151-159 ;  warn 
ing  of  Southern  secession, 
153 ;  views  on  rights  of  the 
states,  153  ;  foresees  war,  158 ; 
enters  campaign  of  1856  as  a 
Democrat,  159  ;  speech  at  Odd 
Fellows'  Hall,  159, 160 ;  repu 
tation  as  a  speaker,  162 ; 
speech  in  the  Senate  on  the 
Lecompton  Constitution, 
162,  163  ;  attempt  to  prove  ex 
istence  of  slavery  under  Eng 
lish  law,  163,  164  ;  opposition 
to  second  term  in  the  Senate, 
165  ;  Houmas  land  affair,  166- 
370;  rejected  to  the  Senate 
by  a  narrow  margin,  170- 
172  ;  friendship  with  the  Bay 
ards  and  others,  174-176; 
quarrel  and  reconciliation 
with  Jefferson  Davis,  177- 


179 ;  views  on  Cuba  and  fili 
busters,  179;  employed  as 
counsel  to  assist  in  pros 
ecuting  the  filibuster,  Hen 
derson,  180-184  ;  goes  to 
Mexico  in  the  interest  of  the 
Tehuantepec  Co.,  186-189 ; 
opposition  to  Douglas  in  the 
Charleston  convention,  191- 
193 ;  comment  on  the  Lin 
coln-Douglas  debates,  194, 
195  ;  attitude  on  the  question 
of  the  return  of  negroes  from 
captured  slavers,  196-198 ; 
forms  legal  partnership  with 
Bonford  and  Finney,  200 ;  en 
gaged  in  United  States  vs. 
Castillero,  New  Almaden 
mines  case,  201,  202 ;  uncer 
tainty  as  to  his  views  on 
secession,  202 ;  pronounces 
for  secession,  203-206  ;  speech 
in  the  Senate  to  justify  the 
Southern  position,  206-212; 
described  as  a  speaker,  213; 
action  on  the  Crittenden 
Compromise,  213-216  ;  not  a 
prime  mover  in  the  secession 
of  Louisiana,  217,  218;  fare 
well  address  in  the  Senate, 
218-223;  returns  to  New 
Orleans,  225  ;  last  address  in 
New  Orleans,  to  the  Wash 
ington  Artillery,  226  ;  ap 
pointed  Attorney-General  of 
the  Confederacy,  229;  de 
scribed  by  Russell  and  Jones 
in  Montgomery,  231-233 ;  ad 
vocates  energetic  policy,  233- 
235  ;  proceeds  with  the  Con 
federate  government  to  Rich 
mond,  237 ;  becomes  influen 
tial  with  Davis,  238;  ap 
pointed  Secretary  of  War, 
240  ;  merits  and  failings  as 
Secretary  of  War,  241-247; 
Brownlow  affair,  248-251  ; 
loss  of  Forts  Henry  and 


INDEX 


453 


Donelson,  251 ;  Roanoke 
Island,  252-255 ;  investiga 
tion  by  Congress,  256;  ap 
pointed  Secretary  of  State, 
256  ;  weakness  as  Secretary  of 
War,  257,  258;  takes  up 
diplomatic  policy  of  his  pred 
ecessors, — faith  in  King  Cot 
ton,  262,  263 ;  instructions  to 
Mason  and  Slidell,  266  ;  diffi 
culty  of  communicating  with 
diplomatic  representatives, 
268;  receives  report  of  Ma- 
sou's  reception  in  London, 
271 ;  alarmed  by  his  threat 
of  withdrawing,  272 ;  policy 
checkmated  in  England,  280  ; 
proposal  of  a  subsidy  to 
France,  283-285  ;  Mercier's 
visit,  286-289  ;  delay  and  dif 
ficulty  in  communicating  with 
commissioners  and  obtaining 
information  of  foreign  affairs, 
290-294  ;  suspicions  of  a 
French  intrigue  in  Texas, 
294-299;  report  of  Slidell's 
interviews  with  Napoleon  and 
offer  of  subsidy,  300-303; 
urges  Napoleon  to  recognize 
the  Confederacy,  305,  306; 
negotiation  of  the  Erlanger 
loan,  306  ;  circular  on  slave 
trade,  309-312;  acts  on  the 
hint  that  Confederate  cruisers 
may  be  built  in  France,  312  ; 
efforts  to  influence  European 
opinion  through  the  press, 
313,  31 4;  relations  with  British 
consuls,  317-321  ;  instructs 
Mason  to  withdraw  from 
England,  322;  expulsion  of 
British  consuls,  324-326 ; 
duties  of  the  Secretary  of 
State,  life  and  habits,  327- 
334  ;  treatment  of  his  sisters 
in  New  Orleans,  335-338  ; 
continued  efforts  at  diplo 
matic  relations  with  France, 


339  ;  convinced  of  Napoleon's 
bad  faith,  341,  342 ;  still  be 
lieves  in  the  success  of  the 
Confederacy,  342;  letter  to 
his  sister  in  New  Orleans, 
342-345;  Confederate  emis 
saries  in  Canada,  345-348; 
wins  over  Davis  to  the  policy 
of  arming  the  slaves,  and 
tentative  proposals  for  eman 
cipation,  349,  350;  last  po 
litical  address,  350, 351 ;  retreat 
from  Richmond,  358-362; 
perils  of  escape  from  the  United 
States,  363-371 ;  cordially  re 
ceived  in  England,  371 ;  visits 
his  family  in  Paris,  371 ;  letter 
on  treatment  of  prisoners  at 
Andersonville,  374,  375;  ekes 
out  his  living  by  his  pen, 
376,  377 ;  enters  Lincoln's 
Inn,  a  pupil  under  Mr.  Charles 
Pollock,  379;  describes  his 
new  surroundings  in  letter  to 
Bradford,  379-381 ;  estab 
lishes  fact  of  his  British  birth 
and  is  admitted  to  the  bar, 
382,  383  ;  advantages  and  dis 
advantages  of  his  position, 
384,  385  ;  first  brief  in  Eng 
land,  387  ;  successful  struggle 
in  his  new  career,  388-396  ; 
kindly  personality  revealed  in 
letters  to  family  and  friends, 
388,  et  seq. ;  preparation  of 
"Treatise  on  Sale,"  389;  its 
publication  and  success,  392, 
393;  appointed  Q.  C.  for 
Lancashire,  395;  his  success 
assured,  397 ;  given  patent  of 
precedence  as  Q.  C.,  398,  399  ; 
conflicting  estimates  of  tal 
ents,  400-404;  the  "Non 
sense"  incident,  404,  405; 
marriage  of  his  daughter, 
406 ;  devotion  to  work,  407 ; 
the  Franconia  case,  408 ; 
builds  a  home  in  Paris,  408, 


454 


INDEX 


409;  meets  with  serious  ac 
cident  in  Paris,  410,  411 ; 
retires  from  the  bar,  412, 
413  ;  general  sympathy,  cul 
minating  in  a  great  farewell 
banquet,  413-416;  continued 
ill-health,  416,  417;  death, 
417;  funeral,  418  ;  will  and 
estate,  418,  419  ;  earnings  at 
the  bar,  420 ;  ability  as  lawyer 
and  orator,  421,  422  ;  personal 
traits,  423  ;  patriotism,  427- 
429;  domestic  relations,  dis 
position  of  his  wife,  430-432 ; 
religious  opinions,  432-434 ; 
humor,  434-437 ;  English 
opinion  of  his  character  and 
achievement,  438-440. 

Benjamin,  Mrs.  J.  P.  (Natalie 
St.  Martin),  marriage,  34; 
unsuited  to  her  husband,  35  ; 
goes  to  live  in  France,  36; 
119,  228,  335,  371,397,  417; 
temperament,  430-432. 

Benjamin,  Julia,  24. 

Benjamin,  Ninette,  9,  36,  335, 
371,  394  ;  marriage  to  Captain 
De  Bousignac,  406,  412,  430, 
435. 

Benjamin,  Penina,  24  ;  see  also 
Mrs.  John  Kruttschnitt. 

Benjamin,  Philip,  21,  22,  23, 
24,  32. 

Benjamin,  Mrs.  Philip,  21,  23, 
24,  57,  58. 

Benjamin,  Rebecca,  24  ;  see  also 
Mrs.  Levy. 

Benjamin,  Solomon,  24,  25. 

Blaine,  James  G.,  216-218,  220. 

Bonford,  P.  E.,  partner  of  J.  P. 
Benjamin,  201. 

Bradford,  E.  A.,  partner  of  J.  P. 
Benjamin,  108,  137,  138,  141, 
200,  372,  379. 

Bradford,  Mrs.  E.  A.,  378,  391, 
435,  437. 

Brett,  Sir  W.  B.,  387,  415. 


Brownlow,   W.  G.,   "Parson," 

248-251. 
Buchanan,  James,  160, 161,  187, 

190,  191. 

Bulloch,  J.  I).,  236,  312,  321. 
Bull  Run,  first  battle  of,  237, 

240;  second,  276. 

11  CAB  VOTES,"  alleged  frauds 
in  New  Orleans  elections,  66- 
68. 

Cass,  Lewis,  159,  187. 

Chaucellorsville,  battle  of,  316. 

Clay,  C.  C.,  346. 

Confederacy,  establishment  of 
government,  329,  333;  re 
sources  of,  236,  246,  247  ; 
diplomatic  policy,  259,  et  seq.  ; 
emissaries  in  Canada,  345- 
348;  end  of,  358,  361,  362. 

Conrad,  C.  M.,  37,  69,  70,  74, 
75,  76,  77,  83,  334. 

Conrad,  F.  B.,  37,  40,  42. 

Consuls,  British,  difficult  re 
lations  with,  317-324  ;  ex 
pelled  from  the  Confederacy, 
324-326 ;  French,  supposed 
conspiracy  of.  294-299. 

OeoZe,case  of  the  slaver,  40-43. 

Crescent  City,  steamer  attacked 
in  Cuba,  137,  138. 

Crittenden,  J.  J.,  compromise 
proposed  by,  202,  213-216. 

Cuba,  feeling  against,  in  New 
Orleans,  137,  180-184. 

DAVIS,  JEFFERSON,  United 
States  Senator,  118,  196,  216, 
2]  9  ;  challenged  by  Benjamin, 
177, 178 ;  President  of  the  Con 
federacy,  227,  229,  233,  234, 
235,  236,  237,  243,  277,  285 ; 
fitness  for  his  office,  238 ;  re 
liance  on  Benjamin,  239,  245, 
255,  274,  327,  328,  332,  396 ; 
respect  for  constitutional 
rights  in  conduct  of  govern- 


INDEX 


455 


ment,  329 ;  instructions  to 
agents  in  Canada,  345;  rec 
ommends  enlistment  of  ne 
groes,  349 ;  speech  after  the 
Hampton  Roads  Conference, 
350;  persuaded  to  promise 
emancipation  in  return  for 
European  recognition,  352 ; 
retreat  from  Richmond,  358, 
361,  362 ;  reward  for  his  cap 
ture,  364 ;  imprisonment,  369, 
374  ;  release,  390. 

Davis,  Mrs.  Jefferson,  8,  13, 
237,  244,  290,  291,  328,  331, 
332,  333,  335,  351,  362,  374, 
402,  405,  425,  426,  434. 

De  Bousignac,  Captain  Henri, 
406,  416,  418,  431,  432. 

De  Bow,  J.  B.,  51,  55. 

De  Leon,  313,  314. 

Democratic  party,  in  Louisiana, 
65,  96,  103,  110 ;  weakness  of 
as  a  national  party,  149,  158  ; 
split  at  Charleston,  191,  192. 

Diplomacy,  of  the  Confederacy, 
basis  of,  259-263. 

Disraeli,  Benjamin,  300,  372, 
422,  434. 

Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  155,  191, 
192,  193,  194,  195. 

Downs,  Solomon  W.,  76,  77,  78, 
79,  82,  90,  115. 

ENGLAND,  see  Great  Britain. 

FILIBUSTERS,  trial  of,  at  New 
Orleans,  180-185. 

Finney,  John,  partner  of  J.  P. 
Benjamin,  141,  200. 

Forsyth,  John,  Minister  to  Mex 
ico,  187. 

Fort  Donelson,  capture  of,  251, 
267,  273. 

Fort  Henry,  capture  of,  251, 
267. 

France,  and  the  Confederacy, 
259,  260,  269,  283,  299-301  ; 


offer  of  a  subsidy  to,  284, 285, 
302,  303;  building  of  Con 
federate  cruisers  in,  304,  305, 
312,  339-341. 

Franconia,  case  of  the,  402,  408. 

Fredericksburg,  battle  of,  281, 
305. 

GADSDEN  Treaty,  with  Mexico, 
originally  containing  clause  to 
ratify  claims  of  the  Tehuante- 
pec  Co.,  133. 

Gaines's  Mill,  battle  of,  275. 

Galapagos  Islands,  reported 
value  of,  143. 

Garay,  Jose,  acquires  railway 
and  canal  rights  in  Tehuante- 
pec,  121,  122,  123. 

Gettysburg,  battle  of,  316,  317. 

Gilmore,  Colonel,  informal  peace 
mission  of,  342. 

Gladstone,  W.  E..  British  Chan 
cellor  of  the  Exchequer,  New 
castle  speech,  279 ;  391. 

Grant,  General  U.  S.,  238,  251, 
348. 

Great  Britain  and  the  Con 
federacy,  259,  260  ;  Mason 
and  Slidell,  263,  264  ;  attitude 
of  upper  classes  in,  270,  316, 
317  ;  attitude  of  government, 
270,  278,  308  ;  allows  escape  of 
Alabama,  278 ;  Confederate 
rams  not  allowed  to  sail,  321 ; 
end  of  diplomatic  relations 
with,  321,  322,  323. 

HAMILTON,  J.  R.,  32. 

Hampton  Roads,  conference  at, 
350  ;  original  report  of  com 
missioners  in  Benjamin's 
hands,  396. 

Harrison,  Burton,  361. 

Hargous,  P.  A. ,  buys  Tehuante- 
pec  rights,  124,  129,  185. 

Henderson,  General,  trial  of  for 
filibustering,  180. 


456 


INDEX 


Hoge,  Reverend  Doctor,  333, 
334;  describes  incidents  of 
retreat  from  Richmond,  358, 
359,  360,  361,  363,  433. 

Hotze,  Major  Henry,  Confed 
erate  commercial  agent  in 
London,  314,  317. 

Houmas  lands,  scandal  about, 
166-170. 

Huger,  General  Benjamin,  252, 
253,  254,  256,  258. 

Hunt,  Randell,  45,  99,  100, 108, 
116,  150,  171. 

Hunt,  T.  G.,  116. 

Hunter,  R.  M.  T.,  United  States 
Senator,  174 ;  Confederate  Sec 
retary  of  State,  263 ;  at  Hamp 
ton  Roads  Conference,  350. 

Huntington,  G.  W.,  59,  61, 
369. 

JACQUES,  COLONEL,  342. 

James,  Sir  Henry,  British  At 
torney-General,  opinion  of 
Benjamin,  384,  403,  414,  439, 
440. 

Jackson,  General  T.  J.,  275. 
276,  277,  316. 

Johnston,  General  A.  S.,  251, 
253,  273,  274. 

Johnston,  General  Joseph  E., 
238,  243,  248,  274,  275 ;  sur 
render  of,  362. 

Jones,  J.  B.,  clerk  in  Confed 
erate  War  Department,  232, 
237,  240,  245,  248,  255,  263, 
274,  351,  352. 

KENNEB,  DUNCAN  F.,  99,  100. 
334;  sent  as  plenipotentiary 
to  Great  Britain  and  France, 
353-356. 

Keyes,  General  E.  D.,  impres 
sions  of  Benjamin,  219. 

Know  Nothing,  or  Native  Amer 
ican  party,  65,  69,  71,  74, 145, 
146,  149,  158,  159,  161. 


Kohler,  Max  J.,  on  Benjamin's 

religion,  433. 
Kruttschnitt,    Alma,    388,  393, 

394. 
Kruttschnitt,  Ernest  Benjamin, 

8,  344,  398,  437. 
Kruttschnitt,  John,  344,370,373, 

389,  437. 
Kruttschnitt,    Mrs.    John,    60, 

335,  342,  363,   367,  370,  371, 

388,  398,  405,  435. 
Kruttschnitt,  Julius,  344.  394. 
Kruttschnitt,  Rebecca,  344. 


LAMAE,  L.  Q.  C.,  Confederate 
commissioner  to  Russia,  309, 
314,  315. 

La  Sere,  Emile,  75,  77,  135, 
185. 

Lawley,  Francis,  7,  8,  9,  22,  417, 
419. 

Lee,  General  Robert  E.,  238, 
275,  276,  277,  305,  306,  316, 
348,  349,  352,  353,  357,  358, 
361,  428. 

Levy,  Mrs.  Abraham  (Rebecca 
Benjamin),  24,  32,  57,  59,  61, 
227,  228 ;  experiences  after 
the  fall  of  New  Orleans,  335, 
336,  337,  338,  343,  367,  373, 
377,  394,  435,  436. 

Levy,  Jacob,  25. 

Levy,  Leah,  see  Popham. 

Levy,  Lionel,  344,  367,  373, 
390,  425,  436. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  debates  with 
Douglas,  191,  194,  195;  in 
auguration,  233 ;  proclamation 
of  emancipation,  279,  282, 
307  ;  at  Hampton  Roads,  350 ; 
assassination,  364. 

Lockett  vs.  Merchants'  Insur 
ance  Co.,  42. 

Lopez,  Narcisco,  filibuster,  179. 

Louisiana,  political  condition 
in,  between  1840  and  1850, 
64-66,  91  ;  local  distribution 


INDEX 


457 


of  slave  population,  91;  se 
cession  of,  218,  219. 

Lush,  Lord  Justice,  387. 

Lyons,  Lord,  British  Minister  in 
Washington,  282,  286,  320. 

McCARGO  vs.  New  Orleans  In 
surance  Co.,  42. 

McClellan,  General  George  B., 
223,  238,  248,  251,  274,  275, 
276,  279. 

McCulloch,  R.  S.,  54. 

McDonogh,  John,  will  of,  139. 

Mallory,  S.  R.,  174,  196. 

Malvern  Hill,  battle  of,  275. 

Mann,  R.  Dudley,  Confederate 
commissioner  to  Belgium, 
358. 

Marigny,  Bernard,  91. 

Mason,  James  M.,  United  States 
Senator,  132,  174,  196;  Con 
federate  commissioner  to  Great 
Britain,  263,  264,  265,  266; 
hints  that  he  may  withdraw, 
270-272,  277,  279,  280,  281, 
308,  321 ;  instructed  to  with 
draw,  322,  323,  324;  remains 
in  Paris  as  commissioner  to 
the  Continent,  339,  353,  356 ; 
remains  in  England  for  a  time 
after  the  end  of  the  Confed 
eracy,  374,  381,  387,  395. 

Mercier,  Count,  French  Min 
ister  in  Washington,  282,  286, 
287,  301,  307. 

Mexico,  political  complications 
in,  affecting  the  Tehuantepec 
Co.,  122,  124,  127,  128,  129, 
165;  French  designs  in,  297, 
354. 

Micou,  W.  C.,  partner  of  J.  P. 
Benjamin,  141. 

NAPOLEON  III,  Emperor  of  the 
French,  disposed  to  favor  the 
Confederate  appeal  for  recog 
nition,  269,  283,  284,  289,  294, 
299,  301 ;  offered  a  subsidy, 


302-305;  proposes  mediation 
to  Seward,  307  ;  doubtful  part 
played  in  connection  with 
building  Confederate  cruisers, 
304,  305,  312,  317,  339,  340, 
341,  342;  designs  in  Mexico, 
296,  297,  299,  354. 

New  Almaden  mines,  case  of, 
201. 

New  Orleans,  size  and  resources 
about  1830,  39 ;  Jews  in,  46  ; 
politics,  64,  66 ;  captured  by 
Federal  forces,  274,  286,  301. 

New  York,  attempt  to  burn, 
345-348. 

"Nonsense,"  incident  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  404,  405. 

O'CoNOR,  CHARLES,  28,  29,  30, 
31,  202. 

PACK  WOOD,  THEODORE  J.,  part 
owner  of  "  Bellechasse, "  54, 
55,  56. 

Palmerston,  Lord,  British  Pre 
mier,  278,  300,  308,  356. 

Plaquemines,  notorious  election 
fraud  in,  71. 

Pollock,  Charles,  Baron,  379, 
380,  381,  385,  386,  403,  424, 
425. 

Pollock,  Frederick,  Baron,  380. 

PlaucluS,  J.  B.,  75,  77. 

Popham,  Mrs.,  niece  of  J.  P. 
Benjamin,  60,  335,  336,  343, 
436. 

QUITMAN,  GENERAL  JOHN  A., 
180,  182,  183. 

RAILROAD,  Jackson,  119,  126, 

134-136. 
Richmond,  Confederate  capital, 

236  ;  life  in  during  the  siege, 

333-335  ;  fall  and  evacuation, 

357,  358. 
Rillieux,  M.,  53,  59. 


458 


INDEX 


Koanoke    Island,     capture    by 

Federal  forces,  252-258,  267. 
Eobb,  James,  97,  135. 
Roberts,  Russell,  404. 

ROSEHUS,  CHRISTIAN,  39,  78, 
80,  103. 

Russell,  John,  Earl,  British  Sec 
retary  of  State  for  Foreign 
Affairs,  270,  271,  272,  277,  279, 
280,  300,  308,  320,  323,  324. 

Russell,  W.  H.,  correspondent 
of  the  London  Times,  231,  262, 
334. 

ST.  MARTIN,  A.,  34,59. 

St.  Martin,  Jules,  334,  361,  371, 
408,  427. 

St.  Martin,  Natalie,  see  Mrs. 
J.  P.  Benjamin. 

St.  Thomas,  Danish  West  In 
dies,  22,  23,  370. 

Scott,  General  Winfield,  104, 
110. 

Secession,  warning  of,  153,  202  ; 
theories  of,  207  ;  advocated  by 
Benjamin,  203,  204,  205 ;  re 
sponsibility  for,  206,  214-217, 
224 ;  of  Louisiana,  218. 

Selborne,  Earl,  Lord  Chancellor, 
404,  414. 

Seven  Days'  Battles,  275. 

Seward,  W.  H.,  United  States 
Senator,  42,  145,  175,  176, 
216 ;  Secretary  of.  State,  271, 
279,  280,  282,  301,  307,  312, 
323,  324,  329,  350. 

Sherman,  General  W.  T.,  348, 
352. 

Shiloh.  battle  of,  274. 

Slavery,  Benjamin's  opinions 
on,  42,  62,  85,  86,  93,  111, 
146-149,  156,  162,  163,  164, 
196  ;  distribution  of  slave 
population  in  Louisiana,  91 ; 
not  counted  in  population, 
93,  94;  counted,  107-109; 
Benjamin's  circular  on  slave 


trade,  309  ;  proposal  to  enlist 
slaves,  349  ;  proposal  to  eman 
cipate  slaves  in  return  for 
European  recognition,  352. 

Slidell,  John,  38,  116,  117,  118, 
135,  161,  165;  in  connection 
with  the  Houmas  lands,  168, 
170  ;  in  connection  with  Te- 
huantepec  Co.,  187,  190;  in 
connection  with  secession, 
198,  205,  218,  220,  245 ;  Con- 
federate  commissioner  to 
France,  263,  264,  265,  266, 
269,  283,  299,  300,  302,  303, 
304,  312,  339,  341,  353,  356, 
372. 

Slidell,  Thomas,  37,  40,  42,  116. 

Sloo,  A.  G.,  acquires  rights  on 
the  Isthmus  of  Tehuautepec, 
131,  185,  186. 

Smith,  General  Kirby,  362,  367. 

Soule,  Pierre,  United  States 
Senator,  38,  78,  87,  117,  186. 

Stephens,  Alexander  H.,  United 
States  Senator,  150,  227; 
Vice-President  of  the  Con 
federacy,  233,  350,  428. 

Stringer,  G.  R.,  33. 

Sugar,  cultivation  of,  48,  49,  50 ; 
articles  on,  by  Benjamin,  51- 
56. 


TAYLOR,  GENERAL  RICHARD, 
344,  376,  391. 

Tehuantepec,  Isthmus  of,  pro 
posed  road  and  canal  across, 
96,  119-133,  185-190. 

Tichborne,  Sir  Roger,  402. 

Thompson,  Jacob,  sent  on  secret 
mission  to  Canada,  345,  346, 
347. 

Toombs,  Robert,  United  States 
Senator,  169,  170,  196,  216, 
225  ;  Confederate  Secretary  of 
State,  263. 

Trent,  steamer,  seizure  of  Mason 
and  Slidell  from,  263. 


INDEX 


459 


United  States  vs.  Castillero,  New 
Almadeu  mines  case,  201. 

VICKSBURG,  fall  of,  316,  317. 
Villamil,  General,  143. 

WALKER,  L.  P.,  Confederate 
Secretary  of  War,  234,  240. 

Washington,  L.  Q.,  Confederate 
Assistant  Secretary  of  State, 
263,  293,  294,  328,  330,  334, 
347. 

Webster,  Daniel,  104,  127,  130, 
131. 


Whig  political  party,  strong  in 
Louisiana,  65,  66,  96,  102, 
103;  its  disintegration,  110, 
111,  112,  144,  146. 

Whitaker,  John,  describes  Ben 
jamin,  43-45. 

Wise,  General  H.  A.,  252,  253, 
255,  256,  257. 

Witt,  J.  G.,  419,  423,  424. 


YALE  COLLEGE,  Benjamin's 
brief  stay  and  reasons  for 
leaving,  26-31. 


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